Twelve Loud Days
by Just4FunFiction
Summary: An anthology of festive one-shots over the twelve days of Christmas, featuring some of your suggestions. With festive fun and Loud laughs galore, it's all that you've been looking for! Presents, shopping, family, and friends, good will to you, I hope my work sends!
1. Chapter 1

**Hey, guys! Hope you're all looking forward to the holidays! I wanted to let you know that I'm going to be doing a series of festive one-shots this year, and I'm calling it Twelve Loud Days. However, I'm still trying to think of story ideas for each one-shot, which is where you guys come in: if you have any ideas for stories you would like me to write, then leave them in a review for me, and I'll give a shout out to anyone whose story ideas I use. To give you an idea of what I'm thinking of, here are some guidelines:**

**-Festive themed**

**-Nothing M-rated**

**-No AU's**

**-No future or past stuff (flashbacks are okay, but not for an entire one-shot)**

**-Can be romantic, but doesn't have to be**

**Other than that, it's up to you. I'll probably use a couple of my own ideas too, but you guys have given me some great suggestions in the past. Now, the first story goes up on Christmas Day, and will be a Lincoln story, but the rest of the stories (in no particular order) will focus on:**

**-Lori **

**-Leni**

**-Luna**

**-Luan**

**-Lynn**

**-Lucy**

**-Lana**

**-Lola**

**-Lisa**

**-Lynn Sr and Rita**

**-Ronnie Anne**

**That's all there is to it! First on goes up on Christmas Day, so if you have any ideas, let me know. Thank you for reading this, and I hope you all enjoy your holidays!**


	2. Day 1- Lincoln's Christmas Case

**(A/N: Merry Christmas, everyone, and welcome to the first of Twelve Loud Days! Now, before I start this chapter, a couple of things! First off, thank you to everyone who left suggestions for what you wanted me to write for this. I'll credit everyone whose ideas I went with at the start of each story. The other thing is in response to one guest review- the reason I started uploading today is because today is the first of the twelve days of Christmas, so it made sense. That, and Uni stuff.**

**Now that that's out of the way, thank you all for reading, and enjoy!)**

It was snowing in the city of Royal Woods, the festive season in full swing. While many were taking advantage of the snow, skating at the park, making snowmen and snow angels and engaging in snow fights, sledding and other fun activities, others were taking advantage of the warmth of the indoors. Fireplaces were roaring, trees were being decorated, cocoa was being drunk, and smiles were all around. In one particular house on Franklin Avenue, the family of thirteen were enjoying the day in their usual way, each of the siblings doing their own things. Some were in the backyard taking advantage of the snow, while the likes of Lucy, Luna, Leni and Luan were upstairs crafting their usual creative Christmas arts. In the living room, Lincoln was sat on the couch with Lori watching a Christmas film, though the latter was only half watching while texting her friends. As he sat and watched the festive flick, he heard some murmuring from behind him, so he looked over his shoulder. Seeing that no one was there, he returned his attention to the film, only to hear it again, this time recognising it as his mother. He turned to Lori, but after noticing that she wasn't looking up from her phone, he decided not to disturb her, instead standing up and walking over to his parents' bedroom door. Giving it a knock, he saw it open a few moments later, his mother greeting him with a slightly frazzled smile.

"Hey, Lincoln," she spoke. "What's up?"

"Hey," he greeted back, a slightly concerned look washing over his face. "Are you okay? You look a little… off."

"Oh, I'm fine, Lincoln."

"Are you sure?"

She was gonna double down on what she said, but after a couple of seconds of thinking, she told him, "one second." Not questioning it, he allowed her to shut the door, the sounds of movement heard from the other side of it. It took a minute before the door reopened. "Come in."

He walked into the bedroom, allowing his mother to shut the door behind him. "So, is everything okay?"

"Actually, Lincoln, I need your help," she explained, surprising her son. "You see, I was beginning to wrap everyone's presents for Christmas, and… somehow, my present for your father has… disappeared."

This confused the white-haired child. "Wait… it disappeared? How?"

"I'm not sure. I kept all of the presents in one location, and I was going to wrap his first, but I couldn't find it." She let out a sigh, feeling stressed about the situation, then shook her head. "Lincoln, I know it's a lot to ask, but could you help me find this?"

Giving a smile, he nodded. "Absolutely, Mom. I can get right on it."

She smiled back at her son before wrapping him up in a warm hug which he happily returned. "Thank you, Lincoln." After a few seconds, they let go. "Now, your father is working until five, which should give you a few hours. Are you sure you can handle that?"

"I think I can do that. So, what exactly am I looking for?"

Rita sat down on her bed and leaned over to her bedside drawer, which she opened and reached into before pulling out a catalogue. Flicking through the pages, she eventually found what she was looking for, then handed the book to the fifth grader. "You see the circled item?" Lincoln looked at it- the item in question was a camping stove, which apparently played music while it prepared the food. "Your father has been getting into camping again with Kotaro, and he's been using a secondhand one he was given from his father. It was sitting in the garage for years, and I don't know how well it still works, so I thought he might like this."

Lincoln nodded, memorising the picture as best he could. "Okay. So, is there anywhere else you might have put it?"

"Well, after I brought it back from the mall yesterday, I had to stop in the garage first to give Lana the new spark plug for Vanzilla… honestly, how she keeps it running, I'll never know." She shook her head, putting that thought aside. "Anyway, I did get something down from the attic, but I don't remember if I took anything up as well."

"Okay. In that case, I'll check the garage first, and if nothing turns up, I can check the attic too."

"Alright, but make sure you put your jacket and gloves on, and if you do go into the attic, let me know, okay? I don't want you getting hurt up there."

He nodded, before making his way out of the bedroom. After heading upstairs to grab his hat, scarf and gloves from his bedroom, he went back down to put on his winter coat, then went outside. The snow wasn't too deep, so he didn't take any longer than usual to get into the back garage door, and though the door had iced up a little he was able to get in. Turning on the light, he saw that no one else was in the garage, with Vanzilla right in the centre. There were an assortment of boxes scattered about, making it a little difficult to move around.

"Okay, looks like I've got my work cut out for me," Lincoln pointed out to himself, shaking his head slightly. "Well, guess there's nothing to do but to start looking." He started by searching the work bench, which was covered in as many boxes as were underneath it. There were a number of Lana's tools and pieces for Vanzilla, some of the things Lori had left over from her brief residency in the garage, and a box of Lynn's older trophies from elementary school, but nothing that appeared to hold any kind of camping equipment. Looking next at the boxes underneath the work bench, he found the same look- assorted hand-me-downs, toys and mementos, but no stove. "Alright, no luck here either. Guess I better check some of the-"

As he turned to head to look elsewhere within the garage, he stopped speaking when he noticed one box sticking out that caught his attention. It was a white box in a pile of brown boxes, and there appeared to be some imaging on it. Walking over, Lincoln carefully pulled it out so as not to tip the pile over, and a smile appeared on his face- the image on the box was that of the camping stove that he had been looking for. Though Lincoln felt proud for finding it, that pride and his smile both faded when he lifted the box up and found it to be incredibly light. Putting the box back down, he noticed that the tape on the top of the box had been cut through, and upon opening it, he found it was empty.

"What? Why would it be empty? Unless…"

* * *

"Someone took it," Lincoln mused, now stood in his bedroom looking at a whiteboard with pictures of his sisters on it. "Now, Lily's too young to be able to get into that box, Leni couldn't hide it without accidentally telling someone she took it, Lola absolutely hates camping, and if Lori thought it was her present, then she wouldn't be able to hide it." He then proceeded to take down the pictures of those four sisters and put them to one side, now looking at only six pictures. "Now, I don't think it was Lisa, because she wouldn't have left the box behind if she did take it. While Luan could have used it for a prank, none of her pranks have ever involved anything on fire or anything being cooked, and she always cooks her pies in the oven. Lucy might use it for some sort of ritual, though she usually uses candles. Something to do with spirituality, I think." Taking down their photos as well left him with just three of his sisters. "Then there were three. Luna is into music, and the other two are outdoorsy… but which one would be most likely to take it?"

Just then, he turned and saw his door swing open, the fifteen-year-old rocker of the Loud family being responsible. "Yo, Linc, you got a minute?" She asked. "I'm kinda stuck on my Christmas song this year, could use a fresh opinion."

"Yeah, sure thing, Luna. I'll be here in a moment." She gave a nod, then turned and headed toward her own bedroom, leaving Lincoln to look back at his board when she was out of sight. "Looks like I have my first suspect."

He turned the whiteboard around so that if anyone walked in while he was gone, they wouldn't see what he was working on. He shut his door behind him as he walked down the landing and went towards Luna and Luan's bedroom, seeing the rocker sat at her desk. Hearing a knock on the door, she turned her head and smiled. "Come on in, bro."

"So, what have you got so far?" He asked, shutting the door before walking over to stand next to his sister.

"Well, me and Sam managed to nail the lyrics about a week ago, and we've got the beat down, but something doesn't sound right."

"Alright, well, let's hear it." Luna nodded and pressed play, the sound of a soft rock song starting to play. Lincoln's lips curled upwards as his head began to bop along with the beat, the rhythm of the song flowing in the air. He listened to it with Luan for its entirety, a smile on his face until the final note faded out. "That sounded great, Luna!"

"Thanks, bro. I'm glad you like it. So, can you think what's missing?"

He hummed as he put a hand to his chin. "Well… I think it might be that bridge before your guitar solo. I think if it built a bit more, it might work better."

"Woah… how did I not think of that?! You're a lifesaver, little dude!"

"No worries, Luna. Now, can I ask you something?" She gave him a nod, so he changed his smile to give a more serious look at the girl. "There was a camping stove in the garage, one that played music while it cooked the food, but now there's just the box. Do you happen to know where it might have gone?"

Luna's eyes widened a bit, her smile dropping in surprise at the accusation. "Can't say I do. Why?"

"Well, I remember you saying how Sam was into outdoors things like sailing and climbing. I knew you and her both liked music, so I thought you and Sam might think of using it, like on a date or something."

She put a hand on her chest, slightly offended. "Bro… you think I stole it?"

"I didn't say that, but I'm just trying to make sure. Mom asked me to find it for her. So, do you know anything about it?"

"Sorry, bro. Can't say I do. Besides, me and Sam have gone camping before. I brought a stove, but she says it's better to make a fire to cook food on, and there's nothing better than tunes on the acoustic round a campfire, so I don't know how much Sam would be into that."

Lincoln nodded, feeling slightly guilty for accusing her but also relieved that it wasn't her. "I see… well, thanks for helping me, Luna. Sorry about this."

"Don't worry about it, bro. You're just trying to help mom, I get that."

"Thanks. I'll, uh, leave you to get on with your song, then." Without waiting for a response, he left his older sister's room, closing the door with a sigh. "Well, that's one less possibility, I guess."

* * *

It was a few hours after Lincoln had started looking for the missing camping stove when his door was knocked upon by his mother. "Lincoln?" She called in, heading in when he called back to her. "Hey, Lincoln. Any luck?" He lowered the comic he held in his hands, making her gasp. "Where did you get that black eye?"

"Lynn," he replied. "I asked some of my sisters if they knew where it was, and let's just say it didn't go great."

"_Haven't seen it, Link," Lana confessed. "I only go camping with the Bluebell Scouts, and we always make our own fire."_

"_It's true," Lola added, giving a slight shudder. "So many bugs…"_

_Rolling his eyes at the princess' second comment, Lincoln looked back at the grease monkey and told her, "well, let me know if you see it, okay? I'm gonna go see if Lynn knows anything."_

"_I wouldn't do that, Link. Lynn's practicing her boxing right now."_

"_I'll be okay." The twins watched as he walked up to his older and younger sisters' room door and knocked, before waiting for it to open. "Hey, Lynn, I was wondering- gah!" _

_Before he could finish what he was saying, he was pulled into the room, the door slamming behind him. The twins looked at each other, with Lana asking, "should we help him?"_

_Lola was going to speak, but they then heard Lynn say something. "Gear up!" __What followed after that was a series of groans and cries of pain from their brother, which made them wince and shudder each time. "I think he's got it," Lola suggested, her twin nodding before they walked away, leaving their brother to his unfortunate fate._

"After she stopped 'sparring'," he used his fingers to show that he didn't really consider it that, "she told me the same thing as the other two- that she preferred to make her own fire." He frowned as a sigh escaped his lips. "Sorry I can't find it, mom."

Giving a small yet caring smile, she sat down next to her son and gently rubbed his back. "Don't worry about it, Lincoln," she assured him. "If it doesn't turn up, then I can find him something else. I just hope I find it before any of your sisters do, in case they accidentally set fire to something." He nodded. "Well, if you haven't checked the attic yet, I'll have a look around. Why don't you go downstairs? The fire's on, the heat might help you relax. It's a bit cold in here."

As she stood up and started to leave, Lincoln had a thought. 'Wait a minute… heat…' His eyes widened in realisation. 'That's it!' Practically jumping off the bed, he rushed out of his room and saw his mother about to go into the attic. "Mom, I think I know where it is!" Before she could ask what he was thinking, he beckoned for her to come closer. When she did, he knocked on the door that was connected to the room next to his, and both watched as Lisa answered by opening the door.

"Greetings, male sibling unit, female parental unit," the PhD greeted. "Can I help you? I'm in the middle of an important experiment right now."

"Actually, could we see what you were working on?" He asked, much to the surprise of both his mother and his sister.

"I suppose that would be okay. Come." Both followed the four year old into the room, where Lisa led them towards her desk, which had a series of beakers set up. "As you can see, I'm currently experimenting to see if I could-"

"Lisa, where did you get that?" Rita asked, interrupting the explanation her daughter was giving whilst pointing at part of the experiment.

"The heating unit? I found it in the garage amongst some other boxes. I assumed no one was using it."

Rita placed her hands on her hips, a stern expression washing over her face. "Lisa Loud, that camping stove was your father's Christmas present!" Indeed, the heating unit that Lisa was using was the missing camp stove. "Why would you take that without asking anyone? Also, why isn't it playing music?"

Lisa coughed, feeling a bit flustered by her error. "I turned the volume down to zero so I could focus, it was proving to be a distraction. As for why I took it, I merely assumed it was something that had been left in the garage some time ago and forgotten about. I wasn't aware that you were keeping it there."

"Well, I was. Now, I'm going to have to ask you to stop your experiment, and hand it to me." Frowning, both from having to stop her experiment and from her mother's tone, she turned off the stove, safely took it out from her experiment and handed it to the Loud matriarch. "Thank you. Now, I'm very disappointed in you Lisa. We'll have a talk about this later." Lisa gave a nod, before Rita turned to her son. "Thank you for helping me, Lincoln. I really appreciate it. Now I can actually get this wrapped before your father gets back."

"You're welcome, mom." Lincoln smiled as his mother kissed him on the head, then watched her walk away. He started to head back to his own room, but when he saw his sister sat on her bed, a frown seemingly plastered on her face, he knew he should talk to her. Walking over, he sat down beside her. "Lisa, you know it was just a mistake, right? You wouldn't have taken it if you knew, would you?"

"No… still, I feel foolish for not realising sooner that it might have been… wrong of me to take it."

He gave a soft smile, pulling her into a side hug. "Lisa, you might be a PhD, but you're still growing up. Being the smartest person in the world doesn't always teach you these things. You just need to learn as you go."

She thought about it, giving a bemused chuckle. "I suppose you're right."

"See? Now, why don't we see if we can finish the experiment together?"

"I appreciate the sentiment, Lincoln, but without a heating unit, there's no more work that can be done. My bunsen burner has a broken pipe, and the replacement won't arrive until after Christmas."

"Is that all? I can ask Zach if he can lend us one."

Lisa looked up to her brother, the start of a smile appearing on her face. "You… you would do that for me?" He gave a nod, and her smile started to grow. "Lincoln… thank you."

"No problem. So, what were you working on?"

* * *

The next day, after a few hours of experimentation, Lisa lifted her goggles and beamed with pride. "Lincoln! We're ready to test!" She proclaimed.

"Alright," he replied. "You're certain this won't explode?"

"Affirmative. There isn't a single explosive component involved. Now, would you care to do the honours?"

He nodded, then took hold of the item on her desk, which appeared to be an ordinary Christmas cracker. Holding it out to Lisa, he allowed her to grab the other end. "Three… two… one… pull!"

As they both pulled on the cracker, they both looked on in wonder as it broke and, along with the recognisable bang, snow began to fall down from the cracker. They were joined just moments later by their sisters, whose initial concern over what had happened turned into the same wonder they had.

"Lisa, what did you do?" Lori asked, to which Lisa turned to her with a wide, Cheshire grin.

"Siblings, I present to you my latest invention- the Snow Cracker. Unlike your average Christmas cracker, this will create an artificial snow, to make the experience more… festive."

"That's cool!" Lana cheered.

"Can you make more for Christmas? Because that would 'crack' me up!" Luan quipped, adding her typical laugh on the end.

"I was hoping you would say that." She then turned to her brother and asked, "would you still be willing to assist me, dear brother?"

"Sure thing, Lisa," he replied, before following his sister towards her desk- after all, they had crackers to make.

**MERRY CHRISTMAS!**


	3. Day 2- Lori's Present Problem

**This story idea was suggested by LoudFam12. Thank you for the suggestion.**

The Loud family were all sat on the couch, watching the TV together after having had lunch. None of them had any plans to hang out with their friends, nor did they at that time have any urgent matters to attend to or anything they particularly felt like doing. Perhaps it was the looming thought of Christmas coming near, but the normally energetic and noisy family was feeling rather calm and relaxed, and they decided to simply share their company this morning. As the festive TV special played on, Lynn felt a shaking to her left, and when she turned to see what it was, she saw that it was Lori, whose eyes had drifted away from the TV and were now directed at the Christmas tree with an almost manic glare, her fists tightly curled up.

"Yo, Lori?" She asked to her, only for her to not respond. Giving a slight groan, she grabbed the eldest Loud sister by her shoulders and began to shake her. "LORI!"

This startled the rest of the siblings, and snapped Lori out of her trance. "Huh?" She uttered, confused about what was happening, only just registering that Lynn had her hands on her. "What? What is it?"

"Lori, what is up with you? You had the same look in your eye as I do when there's ten seconds on the clock, and we need a three pointer to win!"

Lori gave a nervous chuckle. "Wha-hat? I have absolutely no idea… what you're talking about…"

Her voice faded off as her eyes once again found themselves darting towards the tree, more specifically what was under it, and this was what made it click to Lincoln. "Oh, brother," he muttered, pinching his eyes shut. "Lori, I thought you got over this last year? You can't open the presents until Christmas Day!"

The rest of Lori's siblings all groaned as they reached the same conclusion as their brother, while Lori looked offended. "Excuse me, but I _am_ over that! I do not need to open a single present until Christmas Day!"

"Prove it!" Lana dared, with Lola backing her up by saying, "yeah!"

The eldest Loud girl gave a huff as she stood up, a look of disdain on her face. "Fine! If it'll get you off my back, then let's do it!"

"Alright," Lincoln replied. "I'll grab something from upstairs. In the meantime, some of you take Lori into the dining room, and some of you hide the rest of Lori's presents so that she doesn't open them." Everyone in agreement, they got to work. Leni and Luan carefully moved the presents under the tree so that Lori's were out of immediate sight, while the rest of the girls went into the dining room. By the time the white haired child returned from the first floor, he walked into the dining room where Lori was sat down at the table while the rest of the girls were blocking the entrances to the kitchen and the living room. He placed a box wrapped rather crudely in red paper in front of his eldest sister. "Okay, Lori. If you're so confident, then we will turn around and count to ten. When we reach ten, we should turn around to see the present entirely unopened. Are we clear?" Giving an eye roll, she nodded. "Okay. Everyone else, turn away from Lori."

They did just that, and counted to ten out loud. As they reached seven, however, they all heard the sound of paper ripping, and when they turned to look at Lori, they were all unsurprised yet disappointed to see Lori throwing the remains of the wrapping paper aside with a manic grin, her fingers trying desperately to open into the box. When she finally got into it, her grin disappeared when she saw nothing was inside it. "What?"

"Oh, Lori," Lucy sighed, making the high school senior realise what had happened.

"Oh, gosh… I literally have a problem!"

The rest of the siblings started to look sympathetic as Lori cupped her hands over her mouth, looking ashamed of herself. "Don't take it so hard, bruh," Luna consoled her older sister, patting her on the back. "Otherwise, it's gonna make you sick, make you ill."

"But, how am I supposed to do that if I can't even go ten seconds without opening a present?"

With a clearing of her throat, Lisa offered her take on the situation. "Perhaps, if you placed distance between yourself and the item of your obsession for a considerable amount of time, the effects over your subconscious may be partially or possibly entirely nullified."

No one responded immediately, not quite comprehending what she was saying. "I see," Lori attempted to convincingly respond. "And, uh… how would I do that?"

Lisa facepalmed. "Ignoramuses… if you spend time away from the presents, then your obsession with opening them should reduce enough for you to go about your day without it interfering with your regular activities."

The gasps that everyone made upon finally understanding only made Lisa facepalm again, but it went unnoticed. "Okay! So, what should I do to take my mind off this?"

"Ooh! We could go to a café!" Leni suggested, to which some of the sisters all voiced their agreement.

"Well, that sounds nice, but we can't take Vanzilla. The roads are too icy, it wouldn't be safe."

"No worry, Lori," Luna chimed in. "Sam introduced me to one that ain't too far. Just a quick walk, and then we'll be sat with a nice cup of Joe."

"Yep! And that's no _joeke_!" Luan quipped, giving a hearty laugh. "Get it?"

Everyone groaned at the joke, though Lori couldn't help but smile from her siblings' efforts. "Alright… alright, yeah, let's go!"

"While you guys are out, we'll think of other ways we can help," Lincoln offered, making the eldest blonde's smile grow.

"Thanks, guys." So, the four oldest sisters headed for the front door, where they wrapped up in their winter coats, gloves, scarves and hats. "Ready when you are."

Luna opened the door, but before they could leave, they heard someone call out. "Lori, wait!"

She turned around and asked, "what is it, Lana?"

"Can you grab me a muffin?" Everyone simply deadpanned at the request, before the four older girls set off on their way, the door shutting behind them.

* * *

After a brief walk, the girls finally arrived at a cozy little café called _Michelle's_. The inside was small but quaint, with brown wooden walls decorated for the holiday season with tinsel, the tables were covered in red table cloths, and there was a small fireplace roaring at the far side of the room. The place was about half full, with patrons filling every other table. As the four Loud girls looked at what was on offer, the cashier- a mid-twenties brown haired man with black glasses, wearing a red sweater over a chequered shirt and grey jeans- smiled at them. "Hey, welcome to Michelle's!" He greeted the girls. "What can I get for you?"

The girls all turned to Luna to tell her their orders, before the rocker told the cashier, "okay, we'll have a medium Americano, a small Café Mocha with extra foam, a Cappuccino, and an English tea. Can we also get some cookies for the table?"

"Sure, no problem. That'll come to about fifteen dollars. Will you be paying by cash or card?"

Lori reaches for her purse, but Luan stopped her. "We've got this," she insisted, before she, Leni and Luna each paid five dollars to cover the cost.

"Alright, thank you, ladies. We'll bring them to you when they're ready."

They nodded back to him, before walking over to one of the tables. "You know, you didn't need to pay for me, girls," Lori told them as they all sat down.

"We know," Luna assured her, "but we're here to try and help you chill out, dudette."

"Yeah, and we all know that if we made you pay, we'd be the ones _paying the price_!" Luan joked, which got the others to chuckle for once. "But, seriously, Lori, we just want to help."

"Thanks, girls. I just wish I knew why it was I get so… obsessive over it."

"Maybe if you just don't think about it, then you won't have any problem with it," Leni suggested. "Sometimes, if something's bothering me at work, I just put it out of my mind and it allows me to get on with my work."

"I thought you said you accidentally left an elderly woman in the changing rooms because you forgot about her?" Luan pointed out, which made Leni give a sheepish smile and blush.

"It was the Senior Shopaganza! It was chaos!"

Lori gave a roll of her eyes, but still smiled. "Don't worry, Leni, I know it can get chaotic there," she comforted her roommate. "Still, I appreciate what you're all saying. Plus, it's nice to hang out, just the four of us."

Her sisters all voiced their agreement to her sentiment as a blonde waitress dressed in a red shirt, white apron, black skirt and shoes, and red knee high socks walked over with their order. "Alright, so we have one medium Americano, one small Café Mocha with extra foam, one Cappuccino, one English tea and one cookie platter?"

"That's us," Luna confirmed as she and her sisters took their orders from the tray, while the waitress placed the cookie platter in the centre of the table, as well as a sugar bowl and milk pot.

"There we go. Hope you enjoy!"

They all thanked her as she walked away, before each taking a grasp of their cups by the handle, chanting "cheers" to each other, then clinking them together.

* * *

After an enjoyable hour or so, they returned home. While she was planning to go and chill in her room for a bit like her younger sisters were doing, her plan was derailed when she felt a hand grab her arm. "This way," she was told by Lynn, who for whatever reason was wearing a grey hoodie, grey joggers and a black stocking cap. Rather than argue, she let he athlete lead her down into the basement. "Okay, so in order to get past your problem, you need to work it off, and get the stress out of your system."

"Uh… sure?" Lori said, slightly confused. "So, how am I gonna do that?"

Rather than reply straight away, she walked over to her workout bench, where she grabbed a pair of boxing gloves that she promptly through over to her older sister. "Put those on. You're gonna be boxercising."

Knowing better than to argue over it, Lori quickly out the gloves on, tightening the straps as best she could once her fingers were inside. "Okay, gloves are on. What's next?"

"Now, we warm up. I'm gonna call out a move, you're gonna do it until I tell you to do something else. Got it? Good. First up, star jumps. Go!"

Jumping slightly at the younger girl's yell, Lori began doing the star jumps, wondering after a while when Lynn was gonna make her switch, which she eventually did. For the next few minutes, Lori did whatever Lynn instructed her to do- star jumps, jumping jacks, running on the spot, squats. She quickly found out how difficult it was to do mountain climbs and push ups with boxing gloves on her hands, and it wasn't helped by Lynn's consistent shoutings of "COME ON", "KEEP UP THE PACE", "IS THAT ALL YOU'VE GOT", among other things. Fortunately for her, Lynn eventually called time, allowing her to drop to her knees and pant heavily. "Alright, not bad on the warm up, sis."

"That- was- a- warmup?!" She exclaimed, sweat dripping down from her forehead.

"Yeah, just some light exercises to get the heart pumping," Lynn nonchalantly replied.

"Then why- did I need- the gloves?!"

"To get used to the feel of them! Duh!" Lori almost dropped from that statement, but eventually, she got to her feet, still breathing fairly heavily. "Alright, not bad. Now comes the real workout." She walked over to where a punching bag was hanging from the ceiling. "You're gonna go to town on this thing, okay? I say jab, you jab. I say cross, you cross. I say uppercut-"

"I uppercut?"

Lynn smirked. "Looks like you're getting it. Now, when I need motivation to do this, I just think of someone I hate, like one of the Hazeltucky Hockers, or Darren Corvin. In your case, I'd say just imagine it's some floozy flirting with Bobby."

And just like that, any tiredness Lori had was pushed to one side, a flame now burning bright in her eyes. "Just tell me what to do."

"There we go! Alright, stand here." After Lori was stood where Lynn was, and the younger girl had adjusted her sister's stance, Lynn stood to one side. "Alright, jab!"

And so, for the next ten minutes, Lori did just as Lynn told her once again, throwing her punches at the bag like it really was someone who tried to steal her Boo Boo Bear from her. If Lynn said "jab", she jabbed. If Lynn said "cross", she crossed. If she said "uppercut", she'd uppercut. Her arms and fists would start screaming with pain, her body would be pouring out sweat, her teeth would be grinding together, but she wouldn't stop. She went for fifteen solid minutes before she started slowing down, something Lynn hadn't anticipated from the high schooler.

"Alright, time!" Lynn declared, though Lori kept on punching. "I said, TIME!" Again, Lori just kept on punching. "LORI!" When even this didn't get her to stop, Lynn rolled her eyes with a huff before walking over to her workbench, where she grabbed an air horn and pointed it near Lori as she used it, the loud, resonating horn sound finally disrupting Lori's concentration.

"What?! What?!" After shaking away the ringing in her ears, she looked and saw her sister still holding the air horn. "What happened?"

"You got really into beating that bag up," Lynn told her. "Had to do whatever mom does when I won't stop and use this."

"Oh. How long was I at it?"

"Way longer than I was expecting! You've got a lot of stamina, Lori."

"Well, running after you guys, you kind of have to," Lori quipped with a smirk. Before she could say anything else, though, she finally felt fatigue setting in, so she sat down on the workout bench, then proceeded to lie down, removing her gloves before letting her arms dangle down. "Woah… they're gonna hurt in the morning."

"Eh, you'll be fine. I'm gonna grab you a water, 'kay?"

"'Kay. I'm just gonna… rest here for a little bit."

Lynn rolled her eyes, walking away as she muttered "amateur" to herself.

* * *

After the fatigue had worn off enough for her to lift her arms again, Lori went to the bathroom, washing her hands under cold water to cool down her hands and wash off the sweat she had worked up with Lynn, while also splashing some cold water over her face. After the workout she had just been through, Lori couldn't deny she felt some sort of relief from this. Once she was done, she turned off the faucet and dried her face and hands with a towel, then walked out onto the landing, where her four-year-old sister was waiting for her.

"Greetings, sister unit," Lisa spoke. "How was your strenuous session of physical activity? Street name, 'workout'."

With a roll of her eyes, Lori replied, "it was fine, Lisa. Why?"

"Excellent. In that case, please follow me."

Watching the toddler walk into Lynn and Lucy's bedroom, Lori's curiosity prompted her to follow. When she entered the shared bedroom, she saw that the lights were off, with a candle sat on a saucer in the middle of the room. Sat one side of the candle was Lucy, her legs crossed in the lotus position.

"Welcome, Lori," Lucy greeted. "Please, sit."

"Um, what's going on?" Lori cautiously asked. "Is this some sort of ritual?"

"Not at all," Lisa assured her, adjusting her glasses. "What myself and Lucy plan to do here is lead you through a guided meditation. Studies have shown that, while not by any means a perfect method, establishing a mental sense of peace can prove beneficial when combating issues such as obsessions or addictions. While I would have done so by myself, Lucy's vocal tone is more suited to this sort of exercise, especially given my lisp."

"Plus, I have candles, which are good for meditation," Lucy added.

"Okay, I think I get what you're saying," Lori spoke up. "Well, I've got nothing to lose." She sat down opposite Lucy on the other side of the candle. As she crossed her legs to match those of her gothic sister, a thought came to her. "Wait, you're not going to hypnotise me and make me do any weird things, are you?" When both sisters shook their heads to deny it, she nodded. "Alright. Well, I'll let you… lead me, I guess."

"Lisa? The music, please." Lisa nodded, then pressed play on the stereo, which began to play calming music. "Okay, Lori. Start by breathing at a calm, and controlled pace. Breathe in… and out…" Lori followed her sister's instruction, breathing slowly and deeply, in and out, in time with her sister's instruction. "Continue to breathe, in… and out… As you breathe, focus on the candle. Watch as the flame flickers about, gently dancing on the end of the wick. Familiarise yourself with its image, and slowly start to close your eyes." Lori continued to breathe as she looked at the candle, taking notice of the way in which the flame flickered before slowly closing her eyes, still maintaining the same rhythm of breathing.

"Keep thinking of the flame as you breathe, watching it flicker back and forth with each breathe. As you breathe, you'll notice that the darkness surrounding you and the candle starts to disappear. In its place, you'll see that you're in a clearing in a forest. The trees around you stand tall with green leaves. The grass beneath you is soft, with a small flower patch to your right. A gentle breeze is flowing around you, making you feel calm."

Lori gave a small shiver as she imagined that breeze brushing against her skin, but her lips curled upwards into a smile. "Now, holding your right hand in a fist slowly lift your right arm and hold it out in front of you. As you do, you should see a string held in your hand, and attached to it is a small, black balloon. Inside that balloon is your need to open any and all presents. Despite it's size, it is almost light enough to lift you from the ground. Look at the balloon, relax your hand, and let it go."

Doing just that, Lori opened up her hand, visualising the balloon floating off into the sky. "Watch as it gets smaller and smaller, going farther and farther away, until eventually it gets so far away, that you can no longer see it. It has no hold over you anymore. Now, gently lower your arm, place your hands on your lap, and open your eyes." Lori obliged, opening her eyes once her hands were on her lap. Now her eyes were open, she could watch as Lucy blew out the candle. "And that concludes our meditation."

Now that it was over, Lori's smile grew. "Wow! That was… really relaxing! Have you done this before, Lucy?"

A small semblance of a smile graced her pale face. "Not especially. I've been led through guided meditation before, and I meditate frequently, but this is my first time guiding someone through it myself."

"Well, that was really something, Luce." She looked over at Lisa. "Thanks, you two."

"Not a problem, Lori," Lisa replied, a satisfied smile on her face. "This has been an intriguing study for myself, too."

Giving a small laugh and a shake of her head as she got back to her feet, Lori walked out of the middle bedroom, a relaxed smile on her face. She saw that all of her sisters were looking at her, expectant looks on their faces. "So, how are you feeling?" Leni asked.

"You know what? Relaxed," her older roommate replied. "I know I was acting kind of crazy earlier, but now, I'm feeling a lot better, and it's because of you guys." A resounding "Aww" from the others filled the air. "I love you guys, and now that you've helped me, I think I can get past this."

"Hey, Lori?" They heard Lincoln call from downstairs. "You might want to come see this?"

Intrigued, Lori headed downstairs with the others, where they saw Lincoln stood by an open doorway. Walking past him, the blonde gasped when she saw a red and green striped paper wrapped parcel, with a gold bow tied around it. Picking it up, she grabbed the tag and read it aloud. "Dear Lori, open this whenever you like. Love, Bobby." Her heart melted. "Oh, Boo Boo Bear…"

"Hey, maybe this can help you," Lincoln suggested, causing her to turn to him with a confused expression. "If you can go the rest of the day without opening that, then maybe you're truly over it!"

Understanding what their brother was saying, the rest of her sisters cheered Lori on, saying that they believed in her and that she could do it. This gave Lori enough confidence to say, "then, you better stand back! I need to get this under the tree."

Lincoln stepped to one side, and she began to walk towards the tree, but as she did, she felt the nagging urges from before, telling her to open it. 'Stop it, Lori! You can do this, it's just one present… From Bobby… that he said you can open whenever…' The others noticed that she was starting to sweat a bit. 'No, I can't… I-I shouldn't… I… I…'

Shaking slightly, her resolve broke with a shout of, "I can't do it!" Before anyone could stop her, she ripped through the paper, threw the ribbon to one side, and lifted open the lid…

Which caused the others to give a collective gasp as a cream pie hit her in the face, with a resounding **SPLAT** sound. The plate of the pie slid down her face and back into the spring filled box, allowing Lori's eyes to blink through her cream covered face.

"Dude!" Luna snapped at Luan. "What did you do that for?"

"I didn't do this one!" Luan defended, throwing her arms up. "I'm innocent!"

"Yeah, actually, I did this," they all heard their brother confess, turning to him with a mixed look of confusion, shock and mild anger.

"What are you talking about, Stinkoln?" Lynn challenged.

"See, I was talking with Ronnie Anne earlier, and when I mentioned what Lori was going through, she told me about a time her cousin Carl had the same issue, and Carlota pranked him just like that. It got him to stop trying to open presents until Christmas Day, so I thought it might work for Lori."

While some of the sisters were not amused by the prank, and felt ready to yell at their brother, the chuckles coming from the eldest sister made them stop before they could. What started as chuckles turned into full on laughter as she dropped the box by her feet to wrap her arms around her ribs, bending over in hysterics.

"Uh, you okay, Lori?" Lana asked, confused by her reaction.

"Y-yes, I'm fine," Lori replied as she started to calm down, wiping away the tears and cream from her eyes before straightening back up and turning to Lincoln. "You know what, twerp? I think that's actually helped me." He beamed in pride, but when she said in a sinister tone, "and I know just how to thank you," his smile dropped. "Lynn, grab him."

Before he could run away, his next oldest sister grabbed him by his arms from behind, causing him to aimlessly struggle in her grip. As the others watched on with teasing grins, Lori walked up to her brother, taking her time to take in what she was going to do, before pulling her brother into a tight hug, rubbing her cream covered cheeks against his. While he initially found it disgusting, he eventually joined in on the laughter his sisters had broken into, and once Lynn released his arms, he returned the hug she had given him. As for Lori, she couldn't be happier- thanks to the help of her sisters and her brother, her problem was in the past, and she could enjoy Christmas without spoiling it for herself or for her family.

**THE END**


	4. Day 3- Seasonal Sale Strife

**This story idea was suggested by The Rooster Man. Thank you for the suggestion.**

The Royal Woods Mall, a hot spot for commerce in the small Michigan town, was more bustling on this day than it would be on any other day throughout the year. For today was the first day of the Christmas sales, and patrons were waiting outside, all wrapped up in their winter attires, waiting for the stores to open so they could complete their last minute gift buying for the holidays. Right near the entrance, Reininger's was in the midst of being set up for the upcoming wave of customers- sales tags were being checked, posters were being stuck on the walls, decorations were being placed on the racks and on the checkout counters.

With less than five minutes before the doors would be opened, the owner of the store- Ms Carmichael, a tall and slim woman with fair skin and short red hair, wearing an orange shirt, blue jacket, long blue body skirt, white high heels, black glasses and gold earrings- looked over the checklist attached to her clipboard, then scanned the store before smiling. "Everything is looking nice and festive, and right on time," she said to herself, before walking over to the checkout area. "Gather round, everyone!" Upon hearing their boss shout for them, all of the employees rushed over to the area, standing in a line like they were in the military. "Alright, thank you all for coming in to work today. I know you're all excited for Christmas, so I want you to show that excitement and energy when helping the customers today! Spread the Christmas spirit, with a smile on your face and your heads held high!" She flicked through the pages on her clipboard, looking for the rota. "Once I've read your names, go to your positions. Leni, Fiona- sales assistants."

The two girls nodded, then started walking away, allowing their boss to continue with her management duties. "So, you want to take the front of the store and I'll take the back?" Fiona offered.

"Sure! We can always swap later," Leni replied, to which Fiona nodded.

"Yeah, sure. Catch you at lunch."

"Okay!" She waved to her brown haired friend as they went their separate ways, with the somewhat ditzy girl walking toward the front of the store, where she stood by one wall underneath a sign that pointed down at her and read, 'Need help? Ask here!' She checked her phone for a minute or two, seeing what messages she had received, before putting it away when she saw Ms Carmichael walk past her to the front entrance. She watched as the older woman placed her key in the lock and used it to raise the mechanical gate, and not long after the entrance was fully open, the customers began to flood into the store. As they did so, Leni put on a warm smile and stood up straight, waiting to see if anyone would ask for help. It wasn't long before this ended up being true, when a woman with caramel skin and short raven hair, wearing a brown woollen winter coat, grey winter leggings and brown ugg boots locked eyes with her and started walking towards her. "Hi there! Is there anything I can help you with today?"

"Hi," the woman greeted back, giving a smile of her own. "I'm looking for a dress for my daughter, she's about your size. She likes wearing red, black and purple clothes, but absolutely hates anything blue. Do you have anything like that?"

"I'm not sure off the top of my head, but I know where they'll have them. Follow me!" Leni led the woman deeper into the store towards a set of racks holding an array of dresses in different colours, sizes, materials and styles. "So, does your daughter wear dresses a lot, or does she tend to only wear them for special occasions?"

"Well, she doesn't wear them every day, but she already has a lot of party dresses, so I was thinking of getting her something more casual."

"Okay, give me a second to look." The woman waited patiently as Leni began browsing through the dresses on her behalf, muttering "no" to every dress that didn't work, until she finally said, "ooh! How about this?" She pulled out a dark red long sleeved dress and held it out for the woman to see. "This is a skater dress- it's good to wear during the day, and if she wears it with leggings, then the long sleeves make it good for the winter, and she can accessorise it with a belt, or however she chooses."

The woman smiled again as she grabbed the dress to feel the fabric. "Ooh, you know what? I think she'll absolutely love this! Thank you so much!"

Leni practically beamed as she responded, "aww, no problem! I was happy to help. Have a great day."

"You too!"

Leni waved as she walked away, feeling proud after helping her first customer of the day. As she started walking back to her post, Leni saw a girl stood by herself. She was fair with lightly freckled cheeks, a few years younger than the fashionista and smaller as well, wearing a magenta sweater with a white scarf, black winter pants, black boots and a white beanie over her long brown hair. She was looking around with a shy, almost lost look in her eye. Leni couldn't help but feel slightly sorry for the girl, before making a decision. 'If my job is to help customers, then I have to help her out.' With her mind made up, she made her way towards the girl, careful not to bump into any other customers or racks. When she finally got to the girl, she asked, "hey, are you okay?" The girl seemed startled by this, jumping back slightly. "Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to scare you."

"I-It's okay," the girl replied in a quiet voice.

Leni could sense how shy she was, so she decided to be more approachable, kneeling down so they could look each other in the eye and giving her a soft smile. "You look a little lost. Are you looking for someone?"

"N-no, I'm just… I'm trying to find some things, but I don't really know where to look."

"Well, I can help you with that!"

"You can?" Leni nodded, which made the girl start to smile a little. "I… I-I don't want to be any trouble."

"Don't be silly. Helping people shop is part of my job!"

"Well, if you don't mind. I'm Stacy, by the way."

"I'm Leni! It's nice to meet you, Stacy." Seeing the girl smile a little more made Leni do the same. "So, what kind of things are you looking for?"

"Well, two of my cousins are coming to my house for Christmas this year. I haven't seen them in a couple of years, so I'm not sure what to get them, but I want to get them something nice."

"That's so sweet! Well, don't worry, Stacy. I'll help you find something nice." She then put her hand to her chin as she started to think. "If you haven't seen them in a while, then getting them clothes might be difficult if you don't know what size they are. Why don't you tell me a little about them?"

"Sure. My cousin Gar is a year older than me. We used to hang out a lot, and my mom said he recently got into soccer. My other cousin Lizzy is my age, and she does a lot of drama things at her school."

"Okay. So, does Gar play soccer, or does he just watch it?"

"Both, I think."

"I see. Well, I've got two sisters who are into similar things as your cousins, so I think I know what you should get them. Stick close to me, okay?" Stacy nodded, then reached to grab Leni's hand but stopped herself, blushing upon realising what she was gonna do. Noticing this, Leni held out her hand. "It's okay, I don't mind."

Though she blushed more, Stacy took hold of Leni's hand and followed her through the store. "So, what did you have in mind?"

"Well, if Gar's a year older than you, then he'll be starting to get attention from girls who watch him play. So, if he wants them to really notice him, he'll need to look good while playing." Eventually, they reached a set of shelves which held assorted men's toiletries. "One of my work friends uses this brand. Now, where is it?" She scanned the items for a moment, before finding the item she was looking for and grabbing it. "Here we go! What do you think?"

Accepting the box from Leni, she looked it over, seeing that it had a good amount of items in it, including a beanie, and it was decent price too. "I think Gar would like that."

"Yay! There we go! Now, let's go get something for Lizzy." Taking her hand again, Leni led her away from the men's toiletries towards the makeup section. It didn't take Leni as long to find what she was looking for this time, grabbing a red makeup set. "This should be perfect for Lizzy- my sister Luan only ever gets this set, and she does a lot of drama stuff too. What do you think?"

Stacy smiled, telling the older girl, "it's perfect! Thank you so much!"

"No problem! And, if I remember right…" She checked the price label attached to the box. "Yep! If you get this, you can get a scarf as well with an extra fifty percent off AFTER any other sales. You wanna go see if there's any you think she'd like, or any you'd like?"

"Sure!"

So, they went over to the scarf section, where they spent a good five minutes looking through scarves, with Leni's modelling of said scarves having the younger girl crying with laughter, before she eventually chose a silk scarf to get for Lizzy to go with the makeup set. After deciding that she had everything she needed, Stacy followed Leni to the checkout, where the blonde girl personally rang up her items for her. "Okay, Stacy! So, that comes to a total of eight bucks and forty-nine cents."

"That's all?" Stacy said, slightly shocked. "I thought it was gonna cost more than that."

"Well, it did, but I decided to let you use my employee discount."

The little girl gasped at her generosity. "You'd really do that for me?!"

"Yup! I had fun helping you shop today!"

"Leni… thank you so, so much!"

"Not a problem, Stacy."

After the little girl paid and was given her shopping in a bag and her change, she looked towards the entrance and saw a woman waving at her. "That's my mom, so I need to go now. Thank you so much for everything, Leni."

"Anytime! Happy holidays, Stacy!"

The two waved at each other as the younger girl walked away, leaving a Leni to happily sigh. "That was adorable!" Leni's friend Miguel said to her from the checkout next to hers.

"I know, right? She was such a little sweetie, and she seemed so happy! It reminds me of when I was a little girl, shopping in the mall with mom and dad and my sisters."

"Yeah, when Christmas was more magical."

She dropped her smile slightly, raising an eyebrow at her friend. "What do you mean?"

"Well, when you're a kid, it's magical, but when you get older, it loses some of that spark to it. Haven't you noticed that?"

"Nope. Christmas is as magical for me as it's always been, and nothing's gonna change that for me."

"CAN I GET SOME SERVICE OVER HERE?!"

Turning her head to where the yelling came from, Leni saw a large, forty-something white man with dark grey hair and a gristly beard in a giant grey hoodie, black work pants and boots, stood near her post. "Ooh, better go and help him," she said to Miguel, before walking over to the customer. "Hi, welcome to Reininger's! How can I-"

"About time! I've been stood here for five minutes now!" He snapped, his voice thick and gruff, making Leni frown.

"I'm sorry, sir. I was dealing with a-"

"Yeah, whatever. Look, I've gotta get back to work in half an hour, but my wife's making me pick something up for our kid." He roughly handed a piece of paper to the Loud girl. "It's all written there, so just find it and bring it back to me."

"Oh, uh, right away!" Not waiting to be yelled at again, she power walked away, looking at the note. "Let's see… this should be in boys wear… okay, let's go find it." Making her way towards the back of the store, where boys' t-shirts were hung up all over the wall, with a variety of different characters and designs on the shirts, but not the kind that was written on the note she was given. When she couldn't find it, she looked around until she found Fiona saying goodbye to a pair of satisfied customers. "Hey, Fiona?"

Turning to her friend, the brunette asked, "what's up, Leni?"

"Do you know where I can find this shirt?"

Looking at the note Leni had, she frowned. "Sorry, I sold the last one a few minutes ago. There might be some in the back."

"Okay, thanks. I'll go check." Leni walked away once again, this time heading into the store room, where there were assorted racks of clothes left, right and centre. She looked around as best she could, trying to find the right rack. 'Where is it again? Think, Leni, think… Ah! Better Get My Fleece, Take Pops All Desserts! Far left, first row!' Leni went to that location, where she found the boys' t-shirts. She started looking through the shirts, looking one by one at each one to see if it was right, but after a good two minutes, she found that there was nothing that matched what the customer wanted, worrying her that they would be mad at her. 'Okay, just calm down, Leni… just tell them the truth, and he won't be mad! You can do this.'

Steeling herself, she made her way out of the store room and into the store, making her way through the aisles and passing by the customers until she found the gentleman again. "There you are, you've been gone ten minutes!" He snapped. "Where's the shirt?"

"I'm sorry, sir, but we've sold out of that particular-"

"ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! IT TOOK YOU TEN MINUTES TO TELL ME YOU DON'T HAVE IT?!"

She flinched, slightly fearful of his anger. "I-I'm sorry, sir. If you like, we could order one in, and you could collect it."

"Forget it! I'll just order it online, so I don't have to deal with anymore dumb blondes!"

As he stormed off, Leni wrapped her arms around her waist, looking down in shame. "Thank you for coming…"

* * *

Ms Carmichael returned to the store, having gone for an early lunch two hours after the store opened to avoid some of the crowd. As she walked into the store and passed by the checkout counter, she stopped and turned around, seeing that Leni was stood behind the counter, a drained expression and a weak smile- if it could even be called a smile- on her face as she helped her customer.

"Thank you for shopping at Reininger's," she told the customer before they walked away, not noticing Ms Carmichael approaching.

"Leni!" She spoke, surprising the blonde girl. "You look absolutely terrible! What's wrong?"

"Oh, hey, Ms C. I'm fine, just working away."

"Leni, you don't look great right now. We can't have the customers complaining because you're tired, and you won't be able to work efficiently, so do us both a favour. Go take an early lunch break."

"Are you sure?"

Putting a hand on her shoulder, she nodded. "I insist."

Giving a bit of a smile, Leni nodded back, then grabbed her purse and began to make her way to the exit of the store. She was bumped into by one other shopper, who she promptly apologised to, before heading towards the food court. Her eyes would immediately fall on the dim sum place she loved going to with her friends, but she knew that she wouldn't be able to get a table in time, and she didn't want to wait too long to get her food, so she went to the pizza place further down from it, which fortunately had no queue.

"Hey, Leni," the cashier, a tan Male with black hair in a yellow and red work uniform, greeted. "What can I get you?"

"Hey, Tony," she weakly replied, making his smile drop.

"Woah, you okay? You seem pretty tired."

"Yeah, work's been rough today."

"Christmas sales, I get it. Still, bet some food will help wake you up. What can I get you?"

"One slice of pepperoni and a soda, please."

"No problem. That'll be $3.58." While she paid with her card, he grabbed a soda from the fridge and one pre-sliced slice of pizza, which he placed on a plate and a tray, then handed to the girl. "There you go. Have a good day, Leni."

She smiled back, replying, "thanks. You too, Tony."

Walking away, she found a table where she could sit by herself. Taking her first bite of pizza, she smiled a little at the cheesy and meaty goodness, feeling that it was helping her mood a little, but she couldn't deny that she was still feeling a bit down.

'I thought everyone felt magical at Christmas time,' she pondered to herself. 'So, why didn't they feel that… and why can't I?' Her frown deepened as she got caught on this idea. 'Normally, the Christmas sales make me so happy, but… with how rude some of those customers were… I don't feel very happy…'

"Excuse me, miss? Could we sit here too?"

Looking up, Leni first saw the woman- a fair skinned, red haired lady in a red puff jacket, blue jeans, black boots and a blue scarf. After a second glance, Leni saw the girl stood next to her, and she smiled. "Hey, Stacy!"

"Hi," the girl greeted with a smile.

"Sure, you two can sit here. So, how goes your shopping?"

"It's going well," the woman said as she sat down, with Stacy sitting between her and Leni. "Just little bits of Christmas shopping here and there, but the stores here have what we need, so it's all good. What about you? My daughter says you work at Reininger's."

"Oh, yeah, it's… it's going well."

"Are you sure?" Stacy asked, sounding slightly concerned. "You look tired."

"Stacy!"

"It's okay, ma'am," Leni assured the mother, before looking at the child again. "It's been pretty busy, Stacy. It's my first time working a Christmas sale, so it was a bit more than I expected. No one was quite as much fun to help as you were."

"Oh… well, maybe this will help."

Confused, Leni watched as the girl dug into one of her bags, searching for something, and when she put it on the table, Leni gasped. "What's this?"

Stacy smiled, pushing the small, red present box towards the blonde girl. "It's for you. I wanted to thank you for helping me earlier." Her heart practically melted, the tiredness in her eyes being replaced with a look of joy. "Go on, open it!"

Not needing to be told twice, she gently lifted the lid from the box, placing it one side before looking inside, her smile growing at what she saw- a large chocolate chip cookie, with pink icing that made a heart and the words "THANK YOU" on it. Looking back at the girl, she smiled and said, "I love it!" Stacy couldn't help but giggle as she saw Leni take her first bite, a hum of satisfaction emanating from her at how gooey the chips were. "It's delicious! Thank you so much, Stacy!"

"You're welcome," she replied leaning toward her to give her a hug which Leni couldn't help but return, and in that moment, she felt her Christmas spirit return. The thing that made her happiest about Christmas sales was making people like Stacy happy, and to her, that was what Christmas was all about.

**THE END**


	5. Day 4- Gifts Of Laughter

It was a cool, snowy day in Royal Woods, and while most of the residents were keeping indoors rather than brave the cold, some of them were embracing it, walking in the winter wonderland the weather had provided them with. Two such people were one Luan Loud and her boyfriend Benny, walking arm in arm at a leisurely pace, the former resting her head on the shoulder of the latter. Both were in their winter outfits, with Luan wearing a white turtleneck under a yellow coat, light yellow pants, brown boots, pink gloves and pink earmuffs, whilst Benny had on a light blue puff jacket over a white sweater, dark blue winter pants, black boots, white gloves, a white scarf and a blue winter cap.

"Isn't this relaxing?" Luan happily sighed, snuggling slightly against her boyfriend. "The snow falling around us, the calm breeze blowing past… I feel like I'm in a real life snow globe…"

"Well, we have all day to _trot_ around town," he quipped. "_Snow_ reason to hurry!"

He gave a snorted laugh, while Luan giggled at his jokes. "Oh, Benny!" The two continued walking, nearing somewhere to cross the road, but before they could do so, they heard a cry and turned to their left to see a woman on the ground, her groceries scattered about. The two high school freshmen rushed over to help straight away, Benny helping the woman to her feet while Luan started gathering up the groceries. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, thank you," the old woman replied, dusting some of the snow off of her brown winter coat and grey pants. "Just slipped on the ice a little is all." Luan handed her the bag filled with the formerly scattered food items. "Oh, thank you, dear."

"Not at all," Luan replied, before seeing just how many bags she had. "That's a lot of food. Are your family visiting you?"

"Oh, no, though in a sense, you could say that they are for family. I run the orphanage, and this is the food for the children."

"Really?" Benny inquired, to which the woman nodded. "Woah…"

"I know, it sounds a lot, but the kids are all so wonderful, it's the least I can do for them." Her smile, however, turned into a frown when she added, "shame it's the most I can do at the moment."

"What do you mean?" Luan asked.

"Well, funding is a bit low at the moment, unfortunately. I'm lucky that I have enough to pay the bills and provide food for them, but… I'm sorry, I shouldn't be troubling you with this. Thank you both so much for helping me, you're both very kind."

She saw one more bag on the ground and leaned down to grab it, but started to slip again, so Benny reached out and held her up. "Why don't we grab that for you?" He offered, grabbing the bag she was reaching for and handing it back to her. "If you like, we could help you to carry these back to the orphanage."

"Oh, thank you, but I couldn't ask that."

"It's no problem," Luan insisted. "We were just walking around town anyway, so we don't mind."

The old woman felt touched by their generous offer. "Well… if neither of you mind, then I would appreciate it."

"We'd be happy to."

So, the two high schoolers took some of the bags from her arms and helped her to carry them across town, talking with the woman about things such as Christmas, their theatrical endeavours, the orphanage and the kids that lived there, before eventually reaching the orphanage. It was a small one floor place, which didn't look like it could hold as many children in it as the woman had described, with one or two windows cracked and not so many toys in the yard, though with how much snow there was, that could have been either because they were buried in the snow or they were taken inside. Once they got to the front door, the woman took the bags off the two teenagers and thanked them for their help once again, before heading inside with the food. Whilst the two teenagers had started walking away, Benny noticed that Luan had stopped a bit behind him, a frown on her face as she looked back towards the orphanage.

"Luan?" He asked. "What's wrong?"

"… I wish there was something else we could do…"

Benny matched her frown- he knew how much Luan enjoyed the holidays. Even though it wasn't April Fools Day, she loved seeing how much joy could be spread at Christmas time, and the idea that anyone couldn't enjoy the festive season deeply saddened her… and Benny would be lying if he didn't feel the same.

"I know what you mean," he told her, gently taking hold of her hand. "I wish we could too."

"Those kids have nothing, and they did nothing to deserve that. If they can't at least have a family, they deserve to be able to enjoy Christmas…" She sighed, her eyes looking down at her feet. "But, what can we do?"

Seeing his girlfriend so down made Benny sad- the girl he loved was usually so full of joy and happiness, never going more than half a minute without a smile, so to see her this way told him just how important it was to her. He wished that there was a way for him to make her feel better. "Well…" As he thought for a few seconds, a lightbulb went off in his head. "Maybe there is something!"

* * *

The next day, Luan and Benny found themselves at the Chortle Portal, sat in the manager's office. Behind the desk they were sat at was a man in a grey suit jacket, black v-neck t-shirt, grey trousers and black shoes, which were currently planted on the desk. His black hair was slicked back, and his white teeth were currently showing through his grin.

"So, you two, let me get this straight," he spoke, having heard their proposal over the past few minutes. "You want to put on a charity show… before Christmas?"

Luan nodded. "We want to use the money raised to buy presents for the orphans, and anything left over would be left as a donation," she replied. "We're not expecting to raise much, but those kids deserve to at least have something for Christmas."

"Well, that's all very touching… but there's a few issues."

"Issues?" Benny asked, watching the club manager lower his feet from the desk and sit up straight, his hands held together in front of him.

"Well, I'm not debating the situation at the orphanage- Luan, you've performed here on multiple occasions, and you've helped raise money for charities a good few times… even in spite of some of your 'pranks'." She gave a sheepish smile at this, but chose not to interrupt. "However, there are two things that make what you're requesting a bit tricky. First of all, any and all of our previous charity performers have been handled with our marketing team, which includes a treasurer who would withhold and deliver any and all money raised personally. To entrust you with the money would be a great risk on my behalf. You do understand that, right?"

"Well, yes, but-"

"I know what you're going to say, so let me assure you, it's nothing personal." Benny lowered his hand, allowing him to continue his speech. "Now, even if that wasn't an issue, the last day I have available for this kind of show is the Friday evening before Christmas, which is less than a week away. I don't know how well you two would be able to prepare a show like what you're suggesting in that time."

Luan looked down, feeling kind of hopeless about the situation. Looking at her, Benny could sense it like it was radiating from her, so he donned a serious expression and looked back to the manager. "Sir, I know we're asking a lot, and that it's a large task… but if anyone can pull it off, it's Luan Loud." Luan looked up, curious to hear what he was going to say, while the manager raised his eyebrows in intrigue. "Not only does she regularly throw several birthday parties a week, regardless of how long she is given to prepare for it, but she is the most dedicated performer there is. She has helped to put together some of the biggest performances that Royal Woods High School has ever seen, with some being on as short notice as a week, and those were events that involved as many as fifty people- cast, crew, stagehands, you name it. We only have the two of us working together on this, and together, we can pull it off." He turned to Luan, a look of admiration in his eyes. "Because I'm willing to help her in any way possible, every step of the way."

Her heart melted, prompting Luan to place her hand on her boyfriend's knee. "Benny…"

The manager, though he didn't feel quite the same level of appreciation for his words, couldn't help but smile. "You two are really serious about this, aren't you?" He asked, to which they both nodded. "Heh… alright, here's what I'm gonna do for you. I can give you the date, but I need an insurance policy, to make sure that if this thing doesn't go ahead, I at least get some compensation for an unfulfilled booking. Tomorrow, I need a payment of $200 from you two. That payment will be repaid into your collection after the usual ten percent is taken from the total." He pulled a piece of paper out, then wrote down a contract, which he handed to the two kids. "If you sign this, then it's all yours. Do we have a deal?" Luan and Benny smiled to each other, before they took it in turns to sign at the bottom, then hand it back to him. "Alright. I'll see you tomorrow for the deposit."

"We won't let you down!" Luan proclaimed.

* * *

And neither of them had any plans on doing so. First thing after their meeting at the comedy club, they went to Benny's house, where they began to plan out what they were doing. They ran through a number of different suggestions- a two man play, a series of musical numbers, a stand up performance- before deciding to perform some of the most famous comedy duo routines in history with some festive stand up thrown in as well, using Benny's collection of DVDs as well as internet videos of old routines for research. When they met with the club manager the next day, they paid him the deposit and ran him through what they had planned, to which he wished them luck.

The two of them spent the next few days together rehearsing and practicing their routine, while Luan also managed to get Luna to provide music on the day, and Benny was able to find some suitable costumes for them to wear. They took it in turns going to each other's house to prepare- Luan had initially insisted that they should only practice at Benny's house so they could rehearse in peace, but Benny insisted on having a test audience, and if Luan's siblings' reactions were anything to go by, then they were more than ready for the show.

When the day came, Luan and Benny arrived early to the club to help set up, taking their props and things to the dressing rooms and checking in with the manager. They spent the last few hours going over their lines, practicing some of the skits and getting changed into their costumes, which were black suits with white dress shirts, black ties and black shoes. Benny had suggested they go all the way and add bowler hats to the ensemble, but Luan decided to be a bit more Christmassy and brought a pair of Santa hats for them to wear instead, and Benny was not going to argue there.

Eventually, the curtains were raised and Luan greeted her audience, which was surprisingly full. She opened the show with a couple of minutes worth of festive stand up which warmed up their laughter before telling them a little more about what the money they were raising was for and letting them know about the collection jars available. She then went to introduce Benny to the audience, but he didn't appear, so she walked off stage, only for Benny to walk on from the other side of the stage. When he saw that she wasn't on stage, he walked back off and Luan walked back on, which led to a panto-like sequence that had the audience laughing even more, of the two of them walking on and off the stage from both sides, neither able to find the other, even with both of them on the stage at the same time, until they backed up into each other.

After that, they spent the next hour going through an assortment of different skits, routines and jokes that had the audience nearly constantly in hysterics, including a festive variation of the _Who's On First _skit and an original skit of their own, which thankfully went down well with the audience. They also allowed Luna to play a Christmas song during the interval, which allowed them to get changed and prepare for one of their more elaborate sketches. All in all, the show was a great success, and neither of them could be happier.

"This has been so great!" Luan told Benny excitedly, both back in their suits as they prepared to do their finale. "We really did this."

"Actually, Luan, I'd say you did it," Benny argued. "Without your passion or talent, I wouldn't have been able to pull this off."

She blushed from the compliment, her smile growing goofily. "Aww, you big lug!" When she heard the curtain raise, she turned around and faced the stage. "Well, time to end this on a high note."

She started to walk on stage, only for Benny to pull her back, which made the audience laugh. He then led the way onto the stage, with Luan giving him a kick to the backside, which he shrugged off before they both stood and faced the audience.

"Thank you, ladies and gentlemen," he greeted. "We hope you've enjoyed our little bit of fun tonight. We've certainly enjoyed it, haven't we Luan?"

"We sure have, Benny," she told him, "and we want to thank you all for coming tonight. Your donations will mean a great deal to the children at the orphanage, so give yourselves a round of applause!"

After the audience clapped at this, Benny spoke once more. "We hope you've all had a good night, but before you go, we'd like to finish with a little dance."

The two of them walked to the back of the stage, where Benny whispered to Luan, "ready?" When she nodded back, they turned to face the audience again, and once the piano music started, they began. It started small, with some simple stepping with each foot and stepping side to side, but then got more jaunty with foot lifts, skips, and hops. They then stood face to face and held hands like a handshake, walking round in a circle then switching hands and walking the other way before going into a bit of a waltz. Each step, kick, prance, hop, hat nod and wave of their arms was choreographed perfectly, until the final note played and they hit their final pose, holding it as the audience gave them a standing ovation. After a few seconds of posing, they bowed to the audience, holding each other's hand as they bowed left, right and centre, until the curtain closed down, which Luan took as an opportunity to leap at Benny, wrapping her arms around his neck while he twirled her around.

"We did it!" She cheered. "We did it!"

"We sure did!" Benny cheered back, neither noticing the footsteps approaching them.

"Great show, you two!" They heard the manager tell them, prompting Benny to put Luan down so they could face him. "I loved it! Honestly, I haven't seen some of those sketches in years!"

"Thank you!" They both replied, both a little tired after their performances.

"Well, here you go." He handed them an envelope. "There's the attendance fees, plus your deposit. I also decided to let you keep the ten percent."

Their jaws dropped in surprise. "Really?!"

"Yeah, those kids need it more than I do. So, go on- give those kids a Christmas to remember."

"We will!"

"Thank you so much!"

* * *

It was the evening of Christmas Eve, and while all of the children at the orphanage were relaxing after dinner in the living room- reading from the available books, playing card and board games, telling stories and jokes. As she watched on from her armchair, the old woman who ran the orphanage heard the doorbell ring, catching her by surprise. "Now, who could that be?"

"Who is it, Mrs Addams?" One of the girls asked, her and the rest of the kids looking at the caretaker with curiosity in their eyes.

"I'll go and see, children," she replied. "Just stay here and play, okay?"

"Okay," they all replied, before returning to their activities.

After the old woman rose from her seat, she walked out of the living room and went to the front door. Opening it, she saw no one there, so she was going to call out, but when she looked down, a gasp was pronounced instead. Sat at the doorstep was a red sack that was full to the brim, plus a gift basket with an envelope attached to it. Taking the envelope off the gift basket, she read what was written on the front:

_Please accept these gifts for the children of the Royal Woods Orphanage, plus our donation and a little something for the wonderful woman who runs it. Merry Christmas!_

_From, Mr and Mrs Santa Claus_

She looked up again, looking desperately for any sign of whoever left it, but to no avail. She looked inside the sack and saw that it was full of toys, then opened the envelope and let out an even louder gasp at the modest amount of cash held within. After looking once more for the mystery gift giver, she simply smiled and said "merry Christmas" into the wind, before taking the sack of gifts, the gift basket and the enveloped donation inside. Once the door shut, two heads wearing Santa hats poked their heads out from behind a nearby tree, with smiles on their faces.

"Looks like they're going to have a merry Christmas after all," Benny said, looking to his girlfriend. "Do you think she'll realise it's us?"

"It doesn't matter," she replied. "What matters is they can be happy this Christmas."

"You're right. One question- why are we dressed as Santa and his wife?"

"To spread some ho-ho-hope!"

Looking at the way Luan smiled and hearing her joyous laugh, he could have sworn she was a glowing angel. "Luan?" When she looked at him, she saw nothing but love and admiration, save for a pinch of nerves. "I know it's not Christmas Day yet, and there might not be any mistletoe here, but… well, I guess what I'm trying to say is-"

He didn't get to finish that sentence before Luan pressed her delicate lips against his, the two of them deepening the kiss as they wrapped their arms around each other. The snow was still falling around them, but they didn't care, because they had all they needed right there. When they released the kiss, they stared at each other for a few seconds, bright red cheeks and twinkling eyes.

"And here I thought Rudolph was supposed to have a red nose, not a red face!" Luan couldn't help but joke, both of them laughing heartily as they began to walk away, arm in arm with her head resting on his shoulder, walking home through a winter wonderland.

**THE END**


	6. Day 5- Santa's Secret Subway

**This story idea was suggested by corbinace. Thank you for the suggestion.**

While the Louds were waiting for Christmas to come to Royal Woods, the feeling was mutual in a city a few hours away from them. Great Lakes City was as bustling as ever, with children having snowball fights in the parks and the streets while adults finished their shopping for the holidays. Those that weren't outdoors were helping to decorate their houses, enjoying cocoa and watching Christmas films on TV. For Ronnie Anne and Sid, however, they were instead with their friends, taking advantage of the Christmas discount being given at the local arcade, along with their friends Nikki, Casey and Sameer. They had been playing a variety of games for the past half an hour, with Ronnie currently getting beaten by Sameer at a shooter, while Sid, Nikki and Casey were using the basketball machines.

"C'mon, c'mon!" Ronnie grunted as she tried shooting the aliens on screen, hoping to narrow the gap between her and her friend's scores, only to lose her last life. "Dang it!"

Sameer smirked, putting his gun back after seeing **YOU WIN** flash on his screen, the opposite appearing on the Hispanic girl's. "I told you that you couldn't beat me at this!"

"I want a rematch!"

He shook his head. "Sorry, gotta head home and get ready for tonight."

"What's tonight?"

Hearing this, Nikki threw her last basketball and turned around. "Oh, yeah, you two don't know!" She exclaimed, confusing the Santiago and Chang girls.

"Know what?" Sid asked, tilting her head.

"Well, it's Christmas Eve," Casey started to explain, "and every Christmas Eve, there's a secret subway train that only lets kids aged six to twelve board it."

"Sounds kinda shady," Ronnie Anne pointed out, crossing her arms. "What's so special about this subway?"

"It only ever goes to one place- the Christmas Carnival!"

"Yeah, it only appears once a year," Nikki added, "and it doesn't leave any trace behind. No tickets, nothing on the security cameras. Any photos you take disappear from your phone!"

"First time I went was a couple of years back," Sameer recalled. "I tried bringing back some tinsel, but I fell asleep on the ride back and woke up in my bed. When I tried to tell my parents about it, they didn't believe me, and the tinsel was gone."

Casey and Nikki nodded. "Yeah, me and Nik tried that with some cookies last year," Casey remembered. "Same thing happened to us- fall asleep on the train, wake up in bed and it's gone."

"So, you don't get to keep any souvenirs?" Ronnie asked.

"Nah, but it's super awesome, so it doesn't really matter," Nikki argued. "You two should totally come tonight! Train sets off at nine."

"That sounds so cool!" Sid gushed.

"Yeah, it sounds pretty epic," Ronnie agreed, "but how are we gonna get to the subway that late? Our parents aren't gonna just let us sneak out at night, and Abuela definitely won't let me."

Nikki simply smirked and told her, "who said they had to let you?"

* * *

Later that night, as everyone else was starting to turn in, Maria Santiago walked over to her daughter's bedroom door, gently pressing it open. Looking inside, she saw her daughter sleeping easy, eyes closed tight as her head rested on the pillow. Smiling at her daughter, she walked over to place a light kiss on her forehead. "Sweet dreams, mija," she whispered, before turning on her heel and walking out, not knowing that the second the door clicked shut, the sleeping girl's eyes shot wide open.

'It's go time,' Ronnie thought to herself. She threw the covers off, still wearing her winter clothes as she got up from the bed. Quietly opening the window, she climbed out onto the fire escape, looking up to see the window above opening as her friend climbed out.

"Ready to go?" Sid whispered as she and her friend closed their respective windows shut.

"All set," the Hispanic girl whispered back. "We've got about twenty minutes to get to the subway, find the guys, and get on that train. Operation: Secret Subway is a go!"

The two nodded to each other, before making their way down the fire escape, landing safely on the pavement below, before pulling out their skateboards and setting off on their way. The streets were clear enough for them to skateboard on, since the earlier traffic had cleared enough of the snow, and there was no traffic at that time to force them onto the pavement. Ronnie Anne led the way, being the more confident skater, with Sid following her directions. The two moved swiftly through the night, only stopping whenever they needed to make a sharp turn, before they eventually reached the nearest subway station after just over five minutes.

Slipping the boards back into their bags, the next step was the hardest part of the operation- locating their friends. The lack of signal in the station meant they couldn't just ring or text them to find out where to go, with only Sameer's hint from earlier to go off of:

"_It's not one of the regular trains, and it never arrives at the same place. All we have to go on is that it's colder than usual where it would arrive."_

"Okay, we've got about ten minutes to find the others," Sid told her friend as she looked at her phone. "You sure you don't want to split up? We could cover more ground."

"Nah, I don't want to get separated," she argued. "If I found it and you didn't, I wouldn't be able to enjoy it."

"Yeah, I hear ya. I wouldn't want to go without you either."

Smiling, Ronnie replied, "thanks, Sid. Let's go find the others."

With a nod to each other, the two of them practically ran down the stairs, calling out for their friends with each turn they took. The problem with the Great Lakes City Subway, particularly this station, was that they were at the centre of the whole system. It was like a mini maze with five different sets of platforms, so it could sometimes be difficult to navigate. When they got to the first set of platforms, they found it to be deserted, so they had to run back up the stairs, the clock ever against them. The second set of platforms proved the same, as did the third, and by the time they got back up the stairs again, their stamina was wearing thin, so they could only walk down the stairs to the fourth set of platforms.

"Nikki," Ronnie Anne shouted as best she could. "Sameer… Casey…"

"Ronnie! Sid! This way!" They heard a voice call, faintly but just loud enough for them to hear it.

"That's Nikki!" Sid realised. "It's coming from this way!"

"We need to hurry! Follow my lead!" In an attempt to save time, Ronnie leapt onto the bannister and slid down it, getting her to the bottom where she could see her friends boarding a train that was filling up. Turning back around, she saw Sid approach down the bannister, flying off slightly recklessly and nearly tumbling before Ronnie caught her. "Over there! Let's go!"

Using what was left of their stamina, they rushed over to the subway train, heading for the door that Nikki and Casey were stood inside of with their arms out. As the two got near enough to board, their friends reached out and helped to pull them on, just as the train began to take off, pulling out of the platform and shutting the doors once they were inside. The two girls breathed heavily, relieved that they didn't have to run anymore and now that they were on the train.

"Thanks, guys," Sid gasped.

"Yeah," Ronnie Anne added, "you… really helped us there."

"We've got your backs, girls," Nikki proclaimed. "Now, come on. Sameer should have saved us a booth."

Sid looked to Ronnie Anne, whose face showed equal confusion- booth? Following their friends through into the car, they gasped as they realised hats they meant- they were on board the fanciest subway train they had ever seen, with five wooden tables with red table cloths on one side, surrounded by red booth seats. The floor was polished wood, and the windows were larger than your typical subway train windows. As Sid and Ronnie Anne took it all in, they saw Sameer waving to them.

"Over here, guys!" He called out, beckoning for them to join them, which they quickly did, parking their cabooses in the booth with him. "You made it! We were worried you were gonna miss out."

"This is so awesome!" Sid marvelled, still in awe of the whole experience. "Who owns this?"

"And why would they just let kids get on?" Ronnie Anne asked. "Is this some sort of kidnapping?"

"Nah, this ain't a kidnapping," Casey replied with a bit of a chuckle. "We don't know who runs it or anything like that, either. Only person we've ever seen who wasn't a kid on the train was the cart lady."

She was going to ask who the cart lady was, but she soon figured it out when she saw a forty-something woman in a blue shirt, grey trousers, black shoes and a white apron push a cart towards them, carrying cups and two drinks dispensers. "Good evening, dears," she greeted as she reached their table. "Now, then, is anyone here vegan, or have an allergy to dairy?" When the kids all shook their heads, her smile grew. "Wonderful. In that case, I don't have to go back for anything else." Sid and Ronnie were both confused until they watched the woman prepare five cups of piping hot cocoa, handing them one by one to the five kids. "That should hold you until we get there. Enjoy the ride."

"Wait, how much do we-" Sid simply watched as she pushed the cart along, ignoring her request, so the Chang girl turned to her friends. "Don't we have to pay for these?"

"Nah," Nikki told her, raising her own glass to take a drink of the sweet beverage, after which she let out a content sigh. "Sweet, sweet cocoa…"

When the rest of their friends started drinking as well, Ronnie and Sid shrugged to each other before drinking from their own cups, their eyes lighting up in delight while the warmth of it lit up their cheeks.

"Damn! That's so good!"

"It's like liquid heaven!"

"And that's just a taste of what's to come," Casey added. "Look out the window."

They all turned around in their seats, the two of them who hadn't taken the train before wowing in amazement. Rather than the city subway tunnels, they saw that they were travelling on a bridge over a frozen lake, surrounded by mountains. The night sky was starry, a rare site in the city due to how many streetlights there were, and the snow was gently cascading downward, making it seem just a little bit more magical than it already was.

"If you think that's awesome," Nikki spoke after seeing how Ronnie and Sid's faces were practically glued against the window, "wait until we get to the carnival. It'll be the most epic thing you've ever seen."

And it was. Not twenty minutes later, the train pulled to a stop, and after following the rest of the eager kids out of the train, they all looked in awe at what lay in front of them. Two large wooden gate doors with candy cane posts were open, revealing the carnival within. Christmas lights lit the place up, attached to the many various stalls, attractions and rides. There were two elves- REAL elves, dressed in green elf outfits- stood either side of the open gate, welcoming them as they walked in along the snowy path. Far ahead in what they assumed to be the centre of the carnival was a Christmas tree, standing well over thirty feet tall with an array of lights, tinsel, baubles and other ornaments decorating it, plus a beautiful golden star at the the top.

While Ronnie Anne and Sid were absolutely awestruck by it, their friends were already heading in, so they rushed in to catch up. They joined them in a queue to get inside, going in at a decent pace, and once at the front of the queue, another elf handed them a roll of twenty tickets, explaining that the tickets allowed them to enter anything at the carnival before telling them to enjoy.

"So, what should we do first?" Casey asked. "Snowball launchers? Winter maze?"

"Let's let the newbies pick first," Nikki responded, turning to Ronnie and Sid. "Well, guys?"

"How are we supposed to pick?" Ronnie Anne pointed out, gesturing around. "There's so much to choose from!"

"We should start with something a bit smaller," Sid suggested. "Don't wanna start too big too soon."

"In that case, let's go with a classic," Sameer suggested, before leading them to a stall with a ring toss game.

"Really, dude?" Ronnie sighed. "These things are usually rigged."

"Not this one," the elf running the stall assured her. "Watch." He took one of the biggest presents and put one ring over it. "The rings can fit over any and all presents. So, wanna play? One ticket for three rings."

They looked to each other and nodded before paying a ticket each. Taking it in turn, they each threw their rings to varying degrees of success- Casey managed nothing, Sid, Nikki and Sameer each got one ring on a small present, while Ronnie Anne got two rings on presents- one medium, one small. While they all chose a candy bag as their gifts for the smaller presents, Ronnie Anne saw something right at the back- a plush bunny dressed like Ace Savvy.

"Hey, could I get the rabbit toy?" She asked, to which the elf looked uncertain.

"I dunno," he told her. "The big guy didn't really let visitors keep souvenirs. Any candy that people win either gets eaten before they go back or ends up in their stockings, but toys don't tend to."

"Please?" She cupped her hands together in a begging position. "I've got a friend who would _love_ that for Christmas."

The elf still looked unsure, but seeing the girl begging made him relent. "Alright, but only because it's for your friend."

Ronnie Anne smiled, watching him walk over to grab the bunny then hand it to her. "Thank you."

As they all waved at him while walking away, Sid turned to her friend and asked, "is that for Lincoln?"

"Yeah, he loves Ace Savvy," she replied as she put the toy in her bag. "He's gonna go nuts for it."

"So, where should we go next?" Nikki asked. "We've got all night, and a lot to see."

* * *

And so, for the next few hours, they saw as much of the carnival as they could, and there was a _lot _to see and do. They went to a reindeer petting zoo, where the reindeers took to them so much that the elves allowed to ride them, amazing them all the more when the reindeers flew; they took part in the snowball blaster challenge, which was like laser tag or paint-balling but with snowball guns, and Ronnie Anne's tougher side meant that she absolutely dominated, giving their team the win; they went around all the different games, filling their bags with candy that would end up in their stockings somehow.

By the time they were down to one ticket each, nearly three hours had passed, and under Nikki's insistence, they used their last tickets to ride the Ferris wheel. It was higher than any Ferris wheel they had ever seen, and the view from the top more magnificent than any of the world's wonders. The wind blew gently against them, somehow not making any of them cold.

"Wow…" Sid said, looking down on the carnival below them. "How does a place so magical exist?"

"I think the fact it's only available this time of year makes it magical," Sameer pondered aloud, "and that this is the only way to experience it."

"It's like an urban legend," Casey suggested, which everyone seemed to agree on.

"Well, magical or legend or not," Ronnie Anne decided, "it wouldn't be anywhere near as awesome without you guys."

"We're glad you two could join us," Nikki told her and Sid. "You're pretty cool to hang out with, and I know it's cheesy, but for something like this, the more the merrier."

"Here, here!"

"**BOYS AND GIRLS OF ALL AGES, THANK YOU FOR VISITING THE CHRISTMAS CARNIVAL!" **they heard the loudspeakers announce as they eventually left the Ferris wheel. **"IT IS NOW TIME TO LEAVE, SO PLEASE MAKE YOUR WAY BACK TO YOUR RESPECTIVE TRAINS! GOODNIGHT, AND MERRY CHRISTMAS!"**

"Well, guess that's all the time we have," Sameer sighed. "It always feels like it's not enough, no matter how much fun it's been."

"I hear you," Sid agreed. "I wish it didn't have to end, but our families would probably miss us."

"Don't worry, guys," Casey told them. "None of us are twelve yet, so we can come back next year and enjoy it one more time."

"Come on, we better go before the train leaves," Nikki reminded them, jogging toward the train. The others followed suit and made their way back, getting on board and finding their way to the booth they were sat on before. "Well, that's another memory to cherish."

"That was seriously the most amazing thing I've ever seen!" Ronnie Anne exclaimed. "I don't think I'm ever gonna forget about this."

"Me neither," Sid agreed. "Shame we can't bring back any souvenirs." She looked to Ronnie Anne, who was holding her backpack on her lap. "Aren't you afraid the rabbit toy isn't gonna be there when you wake up?"

"Nah," she replied, a smug grin on her face, "because I'm not gonna fall asleep until we get back home."

"Well, best of luck to you, RA," Casey told her, leaning back and closing his eyes as the train started to move. "Wake me up when we get there."

She rolled her eyes, before turning to look out the window, thinking that keeping her eyes on the scenery would help her to keep awake. Not long after the train had set off, however, they all heard music playing over the speakers, like the kind you would hear in a music box. As she thought about who could have been playing it, she heard yawns from her friends, who all stretched their arms before leaning back in their seats or leaning into the table and falling asleep. Letting out a yawn of her own, Ronnie Anne suddenly felt incredibly tired.

'No,' she sleepily thought, her eyes struggling to stay open. 'Got… to stay… awake…' But it was no use, and as her head fell into her hands on the table, her arm acting as a sort of pillow, her eyes fell shut as she finally succumbed to sleep.

* * *

When Ronnie's eyes gently fluttered open, she sat up and rubbed the sleep out of her eyes, looking around to see that she was back in her bedroom, and looking at her arm told her that she was in her pyjamas again. "How did I… get here?" She groggily asked herself, the memories of the night before only just resurfacing as if it was just a dream. Before she could ponder that more, however, she heard a knock at her door. "Who is it?"

The door opened, and in came her cousin, Carlota. "Hey, sleepyhead!" She greeted chirpily, closing the door behind her. "You know, for someone who went to bed at eight, you've been asleep a long time!"

Confused, Ronnie Anne looked at her desktop alarm clock, which read '09:34', much to her surprise. "Woah, uh… didn't think I'd sleep that long!"

Chuckling, Carlota crossed her arms and grinned. "So, what were you doing last night? Because I doubt you were sleeping, or at least not right away."

"Right, uh… well, I was… watching ViewTube! Yeah, Sid heard about this new K-Pop band, and once I started watching, I couldn't really stop!"

She gave a nervous chuckle, to which Carlota just raised an eyebrow. "So, you and Sid didn't go to the Christmas Carnival?"

This caught the younger girl off guard. "What?! How did you know?"

"Hey, how do you think they heard about it? I took CJ when I was twelve, and he went and had a blast the first time, but he still thinks it was just a dream."

Ronnie looked at her cousin, not sure what to say at first, before a smile reappeared on her face. "You got me. So, are you gonna tell the others that I snuck out?"

"They wouldn't believe me if I did. Besides, it gives us a little secret that the others don't know about." She walked over and leaned towards the girl before adding, "just don't tell Carl. He'd blab it to the whole city." The two girls shared a laugh and a hug, before Carlota started to walk away. "Anyway, get dressed and come join us. Abuela won't let the others open their gifts without you. Merry Christmas, cuz."

"Merry Christmas, Carlota." Once her cousin had left and shut the door, Ronnie Anne got out of bed, stretching her back. She was going to start getting dressed, knowing that her cousins wouldn't be happy if she delayed their present opening for a shower, but before she could, she heard her phone go off. Walking over to her desk, she saw that she had received a text from Lincoln, which read:

_Lincoln: Merry Christmas, Ronnie Anne! Thanks for the present, I love it! I thought we were exchanging our gifts tomorrow, though?_

Confused, she opened her drawer and saw the present that she was going to give to Lincoln when she and Bobby visited the Louds on Boxing Day. 'If that's still there… then what did he…' Her eyes widened when she remembered the gift she had won the night before, so she checked her backpack and found it was missing the toy. When she eventually came to the conclusion that it had magically found its way to her friend, she smiled. Grabbing her phone, she texted him back.

_RA: Merry Christmas, Lincoln. Glad you like the gift. Had a friend deliver it. See you tomorrow, k? Talk to you later._

Happy upon knowing this, Ronnie Anne quickly got dressed and headed out of her room to join her family, ready to see what Christmas had in store.

**THE END**


	7. Day 6- Easy To Break, Hard To Mend

**This story idea was suggested by DarthSidious04. Thank you for the suggestion.**

The day was young, and the Louds were either out with their friends or staying indoors, doing whatever it was they usually did. For one Lynn Loud Jr, she was in the latter category, though not by choice. Slamming the front door behind her, she huffed.

"Just my luck," she grumbled, removing her winter coat and hanging it back up. "The one day the team is available, and the ice rink is being used for some dumb couples skating thing! Ice hockey season starts in two weeks, and we need to get practice in!" She hung her head as another irritated sigh escaped her lips, before she looked back up with a grin. "Still… just because we can't use the rink to practice as a team, doesn't mean I can't get in some solo practice!" The idea forming in her head, she rushed up the stairs, bursting into her room where her sister was sat on her bed, holding a book in her hands. "Hey, Luce. You haven't seen my skates anywhere, have you?"

"They're probably under your bed, as always," Lucy replied, not looking up from her book as she turned the page. 'How she finds anything under there, I'll never know.'

"Thanks, sis," Lynn replied, getting on her hands and knees to look under her bed. She moves balls, shirts, shoes, books and all manner of things out of the way, before her hands eventually found a pair of roller skates, which she pulled out, along with a helmet. "There we go!"

"You know mom told you to stop skating in the house."

Lynn rolled her eyes, kicking her shoes off as she sat on her bed. "Relax, Luce, it's fine. Mom and dad are at work, and I know how to be careful." Lucy looked up from her book, and though her bangs hid it, she was raising her eyebrow questioningly. "Okay, sure, maybe I've been reckless a couple of times doing this, but it'll be fine."

Had it been anyone not familiar with Lynn, they would have pressed further on the point, knowing how disastrously it could have ended. Lucy, however, knew that her roommate sister was more stubborn than a goat, and that the only way for her to learn was to let whatever would happen, happen. "We'll see."

Ignoring her sister's ominous words, Lynn geared up, slipping her feet into her skates and tightening the straps before securing her helmet onto her head. She grabbed a puck from her desk and her hockey stick that was leaning against her bed, then got onto her feet and skated out of her room. As she headed down on end of the landing, she dropped the puck, visualising herself in the rink with her team. She imagined that she was in possession, and that she needed to get from one end of the rink to the other in order to score the winning goal.

Holding her hockey stick at the ready, she took a deep breath, then immediately started heading down the landing, dribbling the puck with her stick all the way. She dodged any and all of the scattered toys along the landing, avoided the table that held the flower vase, and skated past the potted tree, and once she passed the door to Luna and Luan's bedroom, she shot the puck into the open bathroom, the puck bouncing off the base of the sink.

"GOAL!" the athlete cheered, raising her stick in victory as she did her victory dance, waggling her butt every direction whilst chanting, "LYNNER, LYNNER, CHICKEN DINNER!", not knowing that one of the doors near her had opened.

"Do you have to do that here?!" Lori yelled, interrupting the celebration.

"Well, the rink's shut, and I can't skate in the garden," Lynn argued, to which Lori rolled her eyes.

"Whatever. Just keep it down, I'm trying to talk with Bobby."

She walked away, not noticing Lynn mocking her talking with a smirk. "Ooh, I'm talking to Bobby." With a "phfft," she used her hockey stick to lift the puck and fling it back towards Lincoln's bedroom, gently flattering against the door while she skated back towards it. "Alright, Lynn. Time for some long distance shooting." Turning again so she had her back to her brother's room, she readied up, moving the puck back and forth a bit until she was ready. She lifted the shot and swung it with considerable strength, launching it down the landing…

…. Sending it straight into the side of the opening doorway to Luna and Luan's bedroom, ricocheting into Lori and Leni's room! Both Lynn and Luan heard a triage of sound, each of which made them gulp- a scream of pain, a crash and an angry gasp. Their eyes locked, and when Lori screamed the athlete's name, Luan gave a sheepish smile before backing into her room. Knowing she wasn't going to get out of it, Lynn rushed into the bedroom of the two oldest girls, seeing Lori with a ferocious scowl on her face.

"What the hell, Lynn?!" She practically screamed as Lynn shut the door behind her.

"Sorry, Lori, it kind of got away from me," she apologised, rubbing the back of her head.

"Sorry?! SORRY?!" She stepped to one side and gestured behind her as she screamed, "LOOK WHAT YOU'VE DONE!" Looking where Lori was gesturing to, Lynn's face paled completely- lying on the ground were scattered pieces of porcelain, possibly even China. "That was Lola's Christmas present from me! It's a one of a kind, hundreds of years old, worth a lot of money, and now it's destroyed!"

"Dang it, Lori, I'm so sor-"

"ZIP IT!" Looking down in shame, Lynn let Lori continue to fume. "Sorry isn't good enough. You've really stepped in it this time, Lynn, and I would personally turn you into a human pretzel for this, but I now have to go out and get something else to replace it." She grabbed her purse off her bedside table, then turned to Lynn, narrowing her eyes as she told her, "get this cleaned up, then get out of my room, and if I find anything else missing, broken or even touched, then I won't just turn you into a human pretzel… you'll become a human balloon animal!"

With that, she practically marched out of the room, barging her shoulder into Lynn's with zero regret, ignoring how downcast and guilt ridden the girl appeared to be. She knew that she deserved it, and that she had to make up for it. Kneeling down, she picked up a few of the scattered pieces and sighed heavily. "Great going, Lynn… only you could turn turn someone's present into a freaking jigsaw…" She was silent for a couple of seconds, before her eyes shot open and her head snapped up. "Jigsaw! That's it!"

* * *

It was a few hours later when Lucy made her way down to the basement, and as she walked down the cold basement steps, she looked in and saw the girl she was looking for, but not how she expected to find her. Lynn Jr, rather than using her workout machines and apparatus, was sat in a chair at a table, her back to the goth girl.

"Lynn?" Lucy spoke, spooking the athlete who turned around in her seat, showing her roommate how frazzled her hair was and how manic her eyes looked, a slight twitch in her right eye. "Are you okay?"

"Me? Yeah, yeah, fine fine fine," she frantically responded, before turning back around. "Just busy."

Looking over the older girl's shoulder, Lucy saw what appeared to be a teapot, though it was one that had clearly been broken before. A few pieces were still on the table, waiting to be added, and the pieces that had been put together were hardly perfectly aligned, with the handle crooked, and a few small gaps here and there. The super glue holding it together was also dotted on the table, the wall, and the middle schooler's hands and hair. There was also an opened box of plasters, some of the empty wrappers scattered about while the plasters that were in them were wrapped around most of Lynn's fingers, and a few soda cans that were now long empty, crushed and bent.

"So, this is where you've been. I heard about what happened, but-"

"Yeah, yeah, I get it. You were right, I was wrong, status quo is upheld."

Lucy shook her head, putting a hand on her sister's shoulder. "Actually, I was going to say, I wasn't expecting you to do this."

"Yeah, well, I couldn't just leave it, could I?" Lynn lifted a piece with a pair of tweezers, her hand shaking slightly. "Lori was way angrier than I've ever seen her, and she had every right to be. I screwed up big time, Luce. Bigger than ever before."

"You know, you could have asked me to help, right? I wouldn't have minded."

Giving a light, dry chuckle, Lynn turned so her sister could see her sad eyes as she shook her head. "Nah, Luce. It was my mess, so it's my job to fix it. Literally."

Giving a slight sliver of a smile, Lucy nodded. "I get it. I'm impressed with how well you've done with repairing it, by the way."

"Me too. I couldn't tell one piece from another when I started, but somehow, I'm nearly finished."

"Is there anything I can do?"

"Actually, could you grab me a water? All the sugar's making me a bit twitchy." Lucy nodded, silently walking away to do that task, leaving a desperate-to-finish Lynn to grab the last five pieces. She placed the first two in the base of the teapot, then placed another in the handle and another on the side of the lid. With the final piece now in her tweezers, she rotated the teapot to find the right spot to put it, then gently and slowly moved the tweezers towards it. She accidentally hit either side of it a few times due to her shakiness, but after taking a deep breath, she finally placed it in the gap and delicately put it back on the table. "I did it… I-I did it!" She leapt out of her seat and threw her arms in the air. "I DID IT! WOOHOO!"

When she brought her fist down on the table, however, she ended up sending it flying. Time seemed to slow down as she screamed, shoving the chair to one side and diving to catch it. As her body hit the floor, she could only watch as the teapot descended…

Right into her hands, allowing her to breath a sigh of relief.

… until it shattered into even smaller pieces in her hands. She could only stare at it, not realising that tears were pouring down her face, or that she was no longer alone.

"What happened?" Lucy asked, rushing over as she saw her older sister start to turn into a blubbering mess.

"DANG IT! WHY CAN NOTHING GO RIGHT FOR ME?! WHY CAN I ONLY BREAK THINGS?! WHY CAN I NEVER FIX THINGS FOR ONCE?! WHY-"

"LYNN!" The goth's shout snapped the brunette out of her raving, prompting her to look up. "Snap out of it!"

"You're, you're right…" Taking the water from her sister, she took a big gulp before pouring some on her face, letting out a heavy breath. "Thanks, Luce."

"So, what are you gonna do now?"

"Well, Spooky, there's only one thing I can do. Skating indoors got me into this mess, so maybe skating outside can help get me out of it." She started to run towards the stairs, before looking back at Lucy. "If Lori comes back, could you cover for me? Just tell her I'll be back later, and she can tear me a new one then."

The raven haired girl nodded, so she nodded back before sprinting up the stairs. Bursting into her room, she grabbed her wallet, skates and helmet, then slid down the bannister to the bottom of the stairs. She threw on her winter coat and gloves, put her wallet in her coat pocket and put her skates and helmet on, then went out of the front door and on her way. She skated along the pavements as fast she could, ignoring the cold blowing against her face, threatening to send her back the way she came. She did her best to avoid bumping into anyone along the way, though her hurry meant she didn't have time to stop and apologise, so anytime she did make contact with someone, she did her best to yell sorry to them as she carried on her way.

One block turned to two, two turned to four, and before she knew it, she found herself in the centre of town, where the pavements were full of people- couples walking arm in arm, parents shopping with their children, friends hanging out. She knew she wouldn't be able to just skate threw without being knocked over or knocking someone over, so she had to struggle to get threw against the tide of people walking towards her.

"Excuse me- sorry- watch out- hey, watch it!" She called out, doing her best to get threw quickly. At one point, she caused someone to drop their bags, so she stopped to help them pick it up, getting an earful about not rushing through life which she cast aside as she carried on her way. Eventually, she broke through the crowd and saw an antiques store, which was what she was looking for. What made her heart sink, however, was that a man was on the other side of the door, turning over the sign displayed to make it say _closed_. She sprinted as best she could on her skates to get there, knocking on the door as heavily as she could. "Hey! Open up!"

"We're closed!" She heard the man on the other side yell. "Go away!"

"Please, just five minutes! I just need one thing! It's for my sister's Christmas present, please, just-"

"I said we're closed, now LEAVE! Before I call the police!"

"Please! Please…" The man ignored her pleas as he walked into the back of the store, leaving Lynn all by herself- her hopes were dashed, once and for all. "Well… that's it." As she sunk further into her misery, she felt her phone vibrate, so she pulled it out and saw a text from Lucy:

_Lucy- Lori's back. She said to come home so you can talk_

Not five seconds later did she get another text, this one from Lori herself:

_Lori- get back here. NOW_

Sighing, Lynn started her sad, guilt ridden skate back home, knowing it was time to face the music.

* * *

Lynn got back after a half an hour, shivering slightly from how cold it had been, so when she got back inside, she chose not to take off her coat straight away, simply removing her helmet, skates and gloves. She knew better than to keep Lori waiting, so she made her way up the stairs, noticing how some of her sisters would see her then return to their rooms, no doubt trying to stay out of what was about to happen. The only sister on the landing who didn't was Lucy, who gave Lynn a hug and said, "good luck," before heading downstairs. Though the hug made her feel a bit better, she knew it wouldn't make a difference once in the lair of the beast, so she decided to get it over with.

Knocking on the door, it opened instantly, with a very stern looking Lori on the other side. "Sit on the chair," she told her, pointing to the desk chair set out in the middle of the room. Lynn didn't argue, instead sadly trudging over to it and sitting down. After shutting the door, Lori sat down on the foot of her bed and stared Lynn down. "I'm going to give you one chance to speak, so anything you have to say, say it now."

With a gulp and a steady breath, Lynn finally met her eye, and began to talk. "Well, first off, I'm so, so sorry, Lori. I've got no excuse for what I did- it was stupid, it was reckless, and it was unforgivable of me." She felt the tears welling up again, but she didn't let it stop her. "I thought that, if I could fix the teapot, then I could give it as my present to Lola, and you could give her what I was going to give her, but… I only ended up making it worse. I tried to go out and find something to replace it, but the antique store was closed, and there's nowhere else that I could get something like that. I know it's not really enough, but… you give Lola my present to her instead. I'll figure something out, but… she doesn't…. you don't-"

"Lynn, stop." When Lori stood up, still staring down, Lynn ducked her head again, fear setting in. "What you did _was_ stupid and reckless. You did something you know you shouldn't have done, and the consequences for it… well, that's not something that an apology is enough to make up for."

'This is it,' Lynn thought to herself. 'Here it comes…'

"I should tell mom and dad what happened, and I should make you pay for the teapot… but I won't." Lynn's heart skipped a beat- had she heard her right? "When I got back, Lucy told me about what you did- how you tried to fix it, and when that didn't work out, you went out to try and buy something to replace it. She also told me about how… broken you seemed because of it."

Lynn started lifting her head again, cautiously meeting her sister's gaze once again, noticing that it was less… harsh now. "Wh-what are you saying?"

"What I'm saying is… though I'm still mad about you breaking my gift for Lola, I appreciate what you did to try to make up for it." She looked at the hands, which despite the many plasters, were still pretty cut up. "Those hands look like they could use some treatment."

"I… I don't understand."

With a small sigh, Lori got off her bed and kneeled in front of her younger sister. "Lynn… I forgive you."

This broke the dam, allowing Lynn's tears to start cascading down her face. "But… why?"

"Well, for one thing, Christmas is coming up, so it seems like the right thing to do. Besides, after what Lucy told me, I kind of felt like I was a little too harsh."

Lynn shook her head, wiping away some of her tears, only for them to be replaced with new ones. "No. I deserved that reaction, and I would have deserved any punishment I got, from mom and dad _or _from you."

"Well, either way, you really stepped up, Lynn. You took real responsibility for what you did- you tried to fix what you broke, and when you couldn't do that or replace it, you owned up to me. In a small way, I'm kind of proud of you, Lynn." Without needing to hear anymore, Lynn lunged forward, pulling Lori into a tight hug as she sobbed into her shoulder. Lori gently stroked her hair as she returned the hug. "It's okay, Lynn. It's all over now, we can move on."

"But, what about the present? What are you gonna give Lola instead?"

"Lynn, I already got something else." Lynn, upon hearing this, loosened her hug to look up at her sister with a confused look. "I already went to the antique store, and they didn't have anything, so I asked around, and a friend of mine sold me one. She was having a yard sale to raise money for a homeless shelter. I've bubble wrapped it, put in a box and put it somewhere safe for now." She then gave a small smile as she added, "but what matters is, what happened earlier is over. No point dwelling on it, okay?"

Giving a small chuckle, Lynn nodded. "Okay."

"Alright. Now, come on. Let's go have a look at your hands."

She got up and led Lynn towards the bathroom, where she began to treat the cuts left by the shattered porcelain. As Lynn allowed her older sister to treat her injury, she looked at the cuts, and a thought came together her- though the physical scars would heal, the memory of them would serve as a reminder to not let this happen again. She also knew from how Lori was helping her that, despite what had happened, when it comes to Christmas, there is always a way to be forgiven, if you do your best to earn it.

**THE END**


	8. Day 7- Lucy's Christmas Spirit

Christmas had arrived in the Loud House, and for the family, things were in full swing for them. After everyone had woken up, ten pairs of feet eagerly stomped down the staircase, where they were met with the glorious site of seeing their parents stood in front of a tree that had presents piled up under around it. They were all eager to open their new gifts, but after the insistence of their parents, they were patient enough to have breakfast first, a delectable meal of pancakes, eggs (of all variety) and bacon, with fresh squeezed orange juice. Everyone happily ate, some of their initial disappointment over not being able to open their presents once the flavours of breakfast hit their taste buds.

Of course, they couldn't be held back for long, and once all of the food was gone, they all headed into the living room, any restraint thrown out the window. Presents were opened left, right and centre, with paper torn off and sent flying, ribbons thrown to one side, boxes opened with lids tossed away. The parents knew it was gonna be work to clean everything up, but they decided to let their children have their fun for now and deal with that later. Right now, everyone was focused on finding out what they had gotten from their friends, family and jolly old Saint Nick himself. Everyone was thrilled with what they got- golf clubs for Lori, and dresses for Leni; music for Luna and joke props for Luan; sports kits for Lynn and poetry books for Lucy; car tools for Lana and a new ribbon for Lola; beakers for Lisa and baby toys for Lily; action figures for Lincoln, cooking things for Lynn Sr and books for Rita.

Once every present had been opened, and everyone- begrudgingly or otherwise- helped to clear up some of the paper, they all went their own ways to use some of their new presents, play in the garden or watch Christmas specials and films on TV. Yes, for the Louds, everything was as magical as could be.

Well, for most of them.

After lunch was over and everyone returned to their Christmas Day activities, one of the younger Louds found herself in her room. Lucy had ventured there after lunch, hoping to write some new poems in the empty book she had received from Luan, with the Vampires of Melancholia pen she had gotten in her stocking, but the second the tip of her pen met her paper… she found no inspiration. Her mind had gone blank, devoid of any creative ideas. Of course, having been writing most of her life, Lucy was no stranger to writer's block, but this was different. It was something greater than that, and though she didn't want to admit it to herself, she knew what it was.

"Christmas usually leaves me feeling happy," she said to herself, tapping the top of her pen against her chin, "but this year, I just… don't feel anything. No joy, no happiness… no Christmas spirit." She slumped forward, her typically stoic expression bearing more of a frown than usually. "But I don't know why. Nothing seems different, or at least, not enough to warrant this. No one's made me angry or upset, no one's made me feel left out, I'm happy with what everyone gave me… so why can't I feel happy this year?" Her eyes went toward the window, seeing the snow fall against it, and suddenly she felt a bit claustrophobic. "Maybe a walk would help clear my mind."

Leaving her book and pen on her desk, she got up from her bed and headed downstairs, where she saw the majority of her siblings were sat in the living room, some sat on the floor playing with their new toys while the others were sat on the couch watching the tv. Silently walking over to grab her winter coat and slip on her winter boots, she headed through the dining room, passing her father while he was cooking before going out of the back door. She put her hands into her pockets to protect them from the cold after putting her hood up, and took off down the street. She passed many people along the way, giving a "you too" to any who wished her a Merry Christmas, but rather than enjoy her journey, she instead focused on getting to where she was headed.

* * *

The Royal Woods Cemetery was peaceful, with snow blanketing it in its entirety. Only a few people were visiting and paying respect to their since departed relatives, leaving flowers, holly or presents at gravestones, but despite how empty it was, the usually depressing nature of the place seemed to be covered like the ground under the snow, an almost calming and slightly festive air blowing around.

Lucy walked through the open black gates, wordlessly making her way around. 'This place has always been where I go in order to clear my mind,' she remembered. 'Hopefully, it can help me today. Should I visit Great Grandma Harriet? Should I go to the mausoleum? Or should I just walk around for a while?'

_Silent Night_

_Holy Night_

Lucy's head perked up, hearing an almost eerie voice singing. "Who is that?" She pondered.

_All Is Calm_

_All Is Bright_

She turned around, trying to see if she could see who it was, and while she couldn't spot the singer, she was able to figure out which direction it was coming from, so she began to head in the direction toward the voice.

_Round Yon Virgin, Mother And Child_

_Holy Infant, So Tender And Mild_

As Lucy walked past a tree, she stopped as she found the singer, though it wasn't anyone she could ever have guessed. Sat in front of a gravestone was a young girl, only a little bit older than the goth, dressed in what seemed to be Victorian clothing. What made her more unusual was the fact that her body, hair and clothes were all a faint blue with a mild glow. 'A spirit,' Lucy thought in surprise.

_Sleep In Heavenly Peace_

_Sleep In Heavenly Peace_

After the girl stopped singing, Lucy decided to approach her. "Uh… hi?"

The spectre turned to her with a start, eyes going wide. "You… you can see me?" She spoke, her voice bearing a British accent of some kind. Lucy nodded at her question, stunning her even more. "But… how can this be?"

"I'm not sure," Lucy admitted. "I-I'm Lucy, by the way. Lucy Loud."

"Oh! How rude of me, my apologies. My name is Adelia Gladstone."

"It's nice to meet you, Adelia. Are you English?"

The ghost girl nodded, explaining that, "my family moved to America in 1882, not long after I turned nine. Are you from this town?"

"Yeah, I live on Franklin Avenue."

"Oh, I'm sorry, I don't know where that is."

"That's okay."

Adelia gave a small smile, which Lucy returned in kind. "So, Lucy, if you don't mind me asking, why are you here? I've heard from passersby that it's Christmas Day. Shouldn't you be with your family?"

Lucy's smile disappeared, a slight frown taking its place. "Well, I needed to clear my head. I normally enjoy Christmas, but I'm just not feeling it this year. Visiting the graveyard usually helps me to think about things, so I thought it might help."

"I see… but, won't your family be worried about you?"

"I tend to have a habit of going unnoticed. It's not their fault, I'm just kind of quiet, and my sisters and brother are louder than me."

Hearing this made Adelia a bit sad. "Lucy, you shouldn't go unnoticed by your family, especially not at Christmas. You should be spending time with them, while you're still able to."

"What do you-" Before she finished that question, she realised that she was able to see through Adelia, and more importantly, she was able to read the gravestone.

**Here lies Adelia Marie Gladstone**

**Daughter of Luella and Elijah Gladstone**

**She will be missed dearly**

**September 22 1873 – December 24 1882**

"You died on Christmas Eve," she uttered, not realising that Adelia's frown had deepened from hearing this.

"I had gotten into an argument with my mother," she told her, looking down at the ground. "She was saying that I should drop out of school and stay at home, to help her look after the house whilst father worked at the post office, but I told her that I wanted to continue at school. Our argument got louder until she slapped me, so I ran out crying. She tried to follow me, so I decided to cross over the road, but I was trampled by a horse and carriage. I don't know what exactly happened after that, but I know that… I didn't make it." Lucy frowned at hearing the tale- despite her fascination with the ethereal plane and contacting the dead, the idea of actually dying didn't appeal to her, especially at such a young age. "After my passing, I awoke in my new form, and saw my parents grieving over my lifeless body. I followed them home, but for whatever reason, my spirit could not enter. I could only watch from outside as my mother tore down any and all of our Christmas decorations, taking them into the back garden and setting them ablaze. After that, they stopped celebrating the holiday altogether, so I haven't been able to enjoy it either. I wish I could, but now that I am like this forever more, I suppose that is impossible."

The raven haired girl was uncertain what to say here. It was a lot to take in, more than she could have possibly imagined. "So… all this time, you've been stuck here? Unable to move on?"

"Sadly so. I haven't been able to see my parents after they died, so I think they must be in heaven. I wish I could join them up there…" Behind her bangs, Lucy's eyes looked into Adelia's, seeing a lack of hope behind her stare. She wished that she could help, but she didn't know any way that she could. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't be bothering you with my tale. Lucy, if I may suggest something to you… when you get back home, make the most of your time with them."

"I will. It was nice to meet you."

"You too. Thank you for talking to me, and… merry Christmas."

"Merry Christmas." Lucy started to walk away, but as a thought came to her mind, she stopped and turned around to face the ghost with a smile. "Adelia… would you like to come to my house for Christmas?"

The Victorian girl blinked, not certain she believed what she was hearing. "What? You would do that?"

Lucy nodded. "It might allow you to experience Christmas one last time, and it might allow you to move on from this plane. You said you haven't been able to experience Christmas since you died… maybe that's what's keeping you from going to heaven."

"Maybe… it would be nice to see what Christmas looks like today… but, if I couldn't enter my home back then, how will I be able to enter your house today?"

"Maybe you need permission to enter. Normally, that's true for vampires, but maybe it will work for you. So, if you'd like, I give you permission to enter our home."

Adelia stood there a moment, thinking about the offer that Lucy had made for her, before a smile came to her face. "Thank you, Lucy. I'd like that."

* * *

So, the two of them left the graveyard and made their way toward the Loud family residence, the Victorian spectre marvelling at the more modern advancements that she saw as they passed, like the different stores, the new fashion, the light displays and more. Eventually, they reached their destination, and as Lucy looked at the time on her watch, she realised that her family would be readying for Christmas dinner, so going through the back door wouldn't be the best idea. Instead, Lucy went to the front entrance, opening the door and stepping in, then looking back to see Adelia bearing an uncertain expression on her face.

"It's okay," she told her. "I gave you my permission. Just give it a try."

She looked back at the girl, feeling confidence radiate from her, so she walked up to the open doorway, and when she tried to put her left foot in, she felt no resistance, so she smiled and stepped through. As Lucy shut the door behind her, she saw Adelia looking in awe at the sight before her, the Loud family's living room a stunning Christmas display. The lights were shining bright from the tree, the fire was roaring, music was playing over the radio… it was like nothing she had ever seen or heard before, and it was amazing.

"Wow… this is beautiful!" She cooed, almost spinning around so she could take it all in. "It's magnificent!"

"Yeah… it is pretty cool," Lucy agreed.

"Lucy!" They heard a voice call, turning to see Lincoln descend the staircase. "There you are, I've been looking for you." He then realised that she was still wearing her outdoor winter clothing. "Did you go outside?"

"Uh… yeah, I needed to clear my head a bit. I would have told someone, but I didn't want to disturb you."

He gave a soft smile as he wrapped his arms around her. "Well, next time, let us know, okay? I was worried about you." He didn't give her chance to respond before letting go of the hold. "What matters is you're okay. Now, come on, dad almost has dinner ready."

"Okay." While her brother walked into the dining room, Lucy took off her winter boots and coat, hanging the coat up on the rack, then turned to the ghost, who was watching in the direction the boy had gone, a weird yet recognisable smile on her face. "Adelia?"

"Huh?"

The goth smirked. "You think he's cute, don't you?"

Despite her pale blue glow, Lucy could tell that she was blushing at that comment. "N-no…"

A small chuckle came from the eight-year-old, before she said, "come on. I shouldn't keep them waiting." The two of them headed into the dining room, where Adelia gasped at seeing just how many siblings Lucy had, to which the goth simply told her, "I get that a lot."

She sat down in the available chair next to Lincoln, who turned to look at her. "So, did you go up to the graveyard?" He asked.

"I did. It helped me a lot, actually. I also met someone knew there."

"A ghost?"

"Yeah. Her name's Adelia, and she thinks you're cute."

The boy's cheeks turned pink, causing Lucy and Adelia to both giggle at his reaction.

So, the Louds shared dinner together, laughing and smiling as they ate. They dined, pulled crackers, shared jokes and stories, and all in all had a wonderful time. Once the main course was over, the father of the family brought out dessert- a home baked, delectable chocolate cake, dripping in chocolate sauce- and needless to say, it didn't take long for the family to tear apart their portions each, not leaving a crumb behind. Once everyone was done at the dinner table, they all headed into the living room to enjoy some more Christmas television, something that Adelia wasn't sure how to process at first. After Lucy explained to her what television was, ignoring the uncertain looks her siblings gave the black haired girl, Adelia sat down on the floor next to her new friend and watched along with the others, her laughter at some of the shows and films only being heard by Lucy, which made her smile- this Christmas was going to be one she would remember for a long time, if not for the rest of her life.

* * *

As Lucy entered her bedroom after brushing her teeth, now in her nightwear, she realised that Adelia was nowhere to be seen. "Adelia?" She called out, catching Lynn's attention.

"Who are you talking to, spooky?" She asked, causing Lucy to face her again.

"Oh, uh, no one. I'm just… musing."

Raising an eyebrow, she said, "okay… well, you do that while I use the bathroom. Night, Luce."

"Goodnight, Lynn." As the athlete left the bedroom and went towards the bathroom, Lucy saw Adelia appear in the doorway. "Where did you go?"

"I heard my mother's voice," she explained. "It was unmistakable."

"Oh… what did she say?"

A smile spread across the Victorian girl's face. "She said it's time for me to join her. I can go to heaven, Lucy!"

Lucy now matched her smile. "That's great, Adelia!"

"I know! Thank you so much, Lucy. I wish there was something I could do to repay your kindness."

Lucy merely shook her head, telling her otherworldly friend, "you don't have to. You helped me to find my Christmas spirit again. If I hadn't met you, I wouldn't have been able to enjoy Christmas this year."

"Really?"

"Really. Thank you, Adelia Gladstone."

"Thank you, Lucy Loud. Merry Christmas."

With that, she walked out of the room, and when Lucy went out to follow her, she saw that she was gone. "Merry Christmas."

"Yo, spooky!" She heard Lynn say from behind her. "Whatcha doing?"

Rather than stammer, Lucy turned to her with a small smile and said, "nothing. Night, Lynn." She ignored her sister's confused reaction and made her way over to her bed, crawling under the covers and laying her head down on her pillow. As she turned onto her side, she noticed her new poetry book and pen. She grabbed one in each hand and wrote something down on the first page, then put them back on her desk before rolling onto her back and closing her eyes. She didn't even realise that she had left the page open, and that Lynn had walked over to read what it said.

_Visit Adelia for Christmas next year_

**THE END**


	9. Day 8- Sugar Plum Pageant

**This story combines ideas suggested by The Rooster Man and LiamFitz20. Thank you for your suggestions.**

"And the winner is… Miss Lola Loud!"

The audience cheered as, once again, Lola was declared the winner of yet another pageant, the blonde girl adoring the attention she got- the spotlight on her, the host placing the tiara on her head and sash around her shoulder, the crowd cheering with her family in the front row, her rival Lindsey Sweetwater trying her best to hide her fuming anger at being stood up once again. Yes, the pageant princess adored it all, and was looking forward to talking about it over the next couple of days at home and at school.

After walking off stage with the others and heading backstage,Moshe accepted the congratulations of the rest of her competitors and thanked them for their kind words, then headed out to meet up with her family, who would be waiting by the entrance. As she headed their, however, she was approached by a girl her age, one she had not seen before, either at school or in pageanting. She was wearing a white t-shirt and a purple jacket, a dark pink skirt and purple shoes, plus a thin gold necklace around her neck, and her arctic blonde hair was held in a braided ponytail.

"Um, excuse me?" The girl asked, a hint of shyness in her voice. "You're Lola Loud, right?"

Lola was intrigued by this encounter, deciding to speak with her for a while. "Yes, that's me," she replied. "Are you a fan?"

"I am, actually. My name is Minnie, Minnie Henderson."

"Well, it's nice to meet you, Minnie. Is there anything I can help you with?"

"Actually, there might be." She rubbed the back of her arm as she asked the pageant winner, "would you be able to coach me?"

Lola blinked, surprised at what she had heard. "I'm sorry, could you say that again?"

"Well, I've been watching these pageants for a while now, and I wanted to try one for myself, so my mom signed me up for one coming in a couple of weeks called-"

"The Sugar Plum Pageant," Lola spoke as she cut the girl off, "right? The one the Saturday before Christmas?"

Minnie nodded. "Yeah. She bought me a dress for it and everything, but I don't feel confident enough on my own, and when I met the pageant coach my mom knew, I didn't really like her that much, so I thought… maybe I could ask you. After all, you're the best there is at the moment."

Lola's ego meant she gave a bit of a smile at hearing her call her the best. "Well, that is true… but you do realise that I'll be competing there too, right?"

"I thought you might… I guess I should have realised you wouldn't be able to." She turned around and started to walk away, saying, "nice meeting you."

"Hold on." Hearing Lola say this made Minnie stop and turn to face her again. "If you want me to train you for the pageant, then I'm willing to help you, but I have three conditions. First of all, this will be a one-time only thing. Second, I will be strict in my teaching, so you will do what I say, when I say it."

"Okay, I understand that. What's the third condition?"

"My third condition is that, no matter what result you get in your pageant, I cannot be to blame. I will do my best to train you, but I will still be training myself when I'm not training with you. If you don't win, and I do- which, no offence, but I will still plan on winning- then my training cannot be blamed. So," she extended her hand to the girl, "do you accept my conditions?"

Minnie didn't even need to think, smiling as she shook Lola's hand. "I do! Thank you so much, Miss Loud!"

"Please, call me Lola. Do you have a phone?" Minnie pulled out a silver cased cellphone, which Lola took. "I'm adding my number to your phone." She then proceeded to make a text from Minnie's phone to her own, before handing it back to the girl. "Now I have your number. I'll text you a time and place. In the meantime, make sure you know what your talent portion will be."

"I will! I'll see you soon, Lola!"

The two girls waved as they went their separate ways, with Lola bearing a bemused grin on her face. "This should be interesting…"

* * *

Two days later, Minnie found herself at the front door to the Loud House, her mother waiting in the car behind her. She was initially surprised by the somewhat messy state of the front lawn and how loudly she could hear through the door, before focusing on why she was there to begin with. Knocking on the door, she waited about ten seconds before it opened, seeing an older boy with white hair greeting her. "Hello," he told her. "Can I help you?"

"I'm looking for Lola Loud," she replied. "She told me to meet her today for pageant training. My name is Minnie Henderson. Did she mention me?"

"Umm… she mentioned someone coming by, but I don't think she gave a name." Shaking that thought away, he stepped aside and opened the door more fully. "Still, you're at the right place. Come on in."

"Thank you." Minnie walked into the house, cleaning her shoes on the doormat while Lincoln closed the door behind her. Looking around, she noticed the photos on the wall adjoining the staircase, her eyes slightly widening. "Are those all your sisters?"

Looking where she was, Lincoln gave a small smile as he told her, "yeah, they're my sisters. It can be pretty hectic here. Anyway, enough about me. Lola is upstairs, so follow me." Letting the boy lead the way, Minnie headed up the stairs and walked over to one of the three doors on the right of the staircase, which Lincoln knocked upon. "Lola? There's someone here to see you."

The sound of footsteps was heard before the door opened, revealing the pink clad pageant competitor, who smiled at seeing her guest arrive. "Minnie, you made it!" Lola greeted. "Perfect timing, I was just preparing a spot of tea. Do come in." She looked to Lincoln and told him, "thank you, big brother, that'll be all," before shooing him away and escorting the girl into the bedroom. "Take a seat."

"Thank you." Minnie sat down opposite Lola, who began pouring two cups of tea, one for her and one for her guest. "Your room is nice."

"Why, thank you! I do my best to keep it looking clean, which can be difficult with my sister. She keeps a few animals in here." Minnie looked noticeably nervous upon hearing that, making Lola slightly regret saying that. "Don't worry, I made sure Lana either took them with her when she went to the park or put them in containers. They won't bother us." This seemed to do the trick, the light haired girl calming down as Lola handed her one of the two cups of tea. "Here you go. There's milk and sugar available, if you wish."

"Thank you." She put one spoonful of sugar into the tea then took a small sip, smiling at the flavour. "Ooh, that's nice."

"I'm glad you like it! I'm usually more partial to something a bit stronger, but Earl Grey is quite nice too." She took a drink from her own cup, before setting her cup down on its saucer. "Now, then, let's get down to business. Are you absolutely certain you want to compete in that pageant?"

"I am."

Lola smiled- the girl didn't even hesitate. "Very good. In that case, this should go smoothly. Now, today, we won't be practicing, as such."

Minnie raised an eyebrow, asking, "we won't?"

"No, see, I need to know a couple of things before we can do that, and there are some things you need to be taught before we can actually rehearse." The girl opposite her gave a small nod, only partially understanding. "Now, first of all, do you have a picture of your dress?" Nodding, Minnie pulled her phone out of her pocket, scrolling through her photos before finding the dress. When she showed it to Lola, the Loud girl looked it over, zooming in to look at the finer details before nodding. "That's a good dress. Suitable length, intricate detail, good make… do you know what material it is?"

"Um, I think it's velvet?"

"Good material. Did you choose it?" When Minnie nodded, Lola gave an approving nod of her own. "Well, your dress is a good choice for a pageant. Now, next up, we need to discuss the talent portion. What do you plan to do for that?"

"Well, my best talent would be singing."

"Okay. I'm not a singer myself, so I won't be able to help you as much there, but my sister Luna is a musician, so I'll ask her if she can help you more next time. Until then, all I can say is choose a song that fits the theme of the passion, which in this case is Christmas."

"Okay, I think I can do that. So, what about the rest of the pageant?"

"Well, the interview portion isn't as easy to prepare for, as you don't get to know the question beforehand. You can practice at home with other questions, so you know how to deliver them, but I tend to believe that you just need to do three things: be honest, be confident and smile." She got up from her chair and walked over to her bookcase, pulling a thin pamphlet out before returning to her seat. "As for the introductions, this should tell you everything you need. Now, I'll be honest with you- I'm not the best at reading, so my brother Linky helped me when I started out by reading it for me. Memories as much of this as you can, and meet me on Thursday. Bring your dress, as you'll be practicing in it to get used to wearing it for the pageant. Now, do you have any questions?"

"Just one," Minnie confessed, looking slightly bashful as she drank the rest of her tea. "Were you nervous… before your first pageant?"

While some might have thought Lola would laugh, she instead looked sympathetic. "I was, and I felt slightly less nervous with the more pageants I did, but those nerves gave me something to overcome. Don't let the nerves get to you, and you'll be fine."

This made Minnie feel better. "Okay, thank you. I should be going now, my mom is waiting outside."

"No worries. I'll see you after school on Thursday."

The Henderson girl nodded as they both stood up, shaking hands before she left the room and made her way towards the exit. As Lola watched her walk away, her brother approached from his room. "So, how did coaching go?" Lincoln asked.

"It went well," Lola replied. "We'll be meeting again on Thursday so I can show her how to present herself better."

"Well, I hope you know what you're doing, Lola."

She gave a scoff before telling him, "Lincoln, with all of the pageants I've been in, I think I can-"

"That's not what I mean." He crouched down so he could look his sister in the eye. "Lola, that girl thinks you're coaching her just to help her, so make sure that's why you're coaching her, and not for any other reason, okay?"

He didn't wait for a response, walking away as she looked at him with confusion. 'What is he talking about? Of course I'm doing this to help her, why else would I choose to coach her?'

* * *

So, over the next couple of weeks, Lola met with Minnie on a few occasions to help her prepare for her pageanting debut. As could be expected, things were rocky at first, with Lola noticing that her protégé needed to work on her grace when walking and her confidence when speaking, so she trained her in the same way Lincoln had been her own coach- showing by example, having her practice walking with books on her head and showing her pageant videos on the internet. While she was tough in he teaching, she was also patient enough to let Minnie learn at her own pace, and was pleased to see that, with both Lola's coaching and her own individual practice, Minnie made remarkable progress in her training.

Lola felt proud, knowing that she had helped her to find her ability, even if there was a slight thought nagging in the back of her mind that she couldn't quite put to words. Regardless, as she got ready at the convention centre on the day of the pageant, she smiled- she hadn't slacked on her own training whilst coaching Minnie, so she felt more than ready to make this another win in her pageant career. Whilst applying her makeup, she caught sight in the mirror of a ginger girl in a turquoise pageant dress, with a turquoise bow in her hair, white earrings and pink lipstick on. Turning around, Lola started the girl down. "Lindsey."

"Lola," the girl spat back. "I look forward to taking that tiara from you today."

The blonde girl scoffed as she fired back. "Hardly. You'll be lucky if you manage to even get third place today."

Rather than be offended, Lindsey shocked her by smirking. "Ah, yes… I've heard through the pageant grapevine that you've taken on a student of your own. Minnie Henderson, I believe."

Lola didn't like the tone in Lindsey's voice as she brought this up. She almost sounded… impressed. "Not that it's your business, but yes. She came to me for help, and I agreed to coach her."

"I must admit, I didn't think you had it in you." She internally revelled in seeing her rival's face contort in confusion. "Why, to think you had that killer instinct in you, to take a new and potentially promising competitor and take her under your wing, so that you can prepare to beat her. If it was anyone else, I'd say bravo… but it's you, so I'll just say, enjoy second place, Lola."

With that, she walked away, leaving Lola with an appalled look on her face. 'The nerve!' She thought to herself. 'I would never stoop that low! … would I?' The more she thought about it, the more she started to understand what Lincoln was saying to her, and it made her come to a stunning realisation- having coached Minnie, she now knew just how good the girl was, but more importantly, what her weaknesses were. While Lola has no outright plans to use these to her advantage, she couldn't definitely deny any subconscious actions. 'How did I not see that earlier? That girl asked me to help her, and I thought that's what I was doing… or, was I just helping myself?'

"Okay, girls!" She heard a woman announce, waking her from her thoughts. "The pageant begins in five minutes, so head to the curtains."

As the other girls started to make their way towards the stage curtains, Lola was going to head there too, when she saw Minnie sat in her seat, fully dressed in her white pageant gown, which had light blue patterning sewn in. Her hair was let down instead of being in a ponytail, and her face had a light layer of blush and eyeliner on. What worried Lola, however, was the almost fearful look in her eyes, so she walked over to check on her. "Minnie?" She asked, getting her attention. "Are you okay?"

"Um… I'm not sure I can do this," she confessed, looking down at her shaking hands. "I saw how many people were out there, and… I-I don't know how I'm going to be able to cope with that! I... I-I just-"

Lola grabbed her hands, cutting her off and getting her to look at her. "Minnie, let me tell you something. If at any point, I felt like you couldn't do this, I would have stopped coaching you. Now, I know it seems scary, but once you get on that stage, and the lights are on you, it's harder to notice them. You'll only hear them cheering for you. Trust me, Minnie- you can do this."

The Henderson girl wasn't sure why Lola was being so kind to her, just like how she wasn't certain why Lola agreed to coach her in the first place, but hearing her say such words made her concerns take a backseat, a smile spreading across her face. "Thanks, coach."

Lola gave a small giggle at being called that. "No problem, rookie. Now, let's go- we've got a pageant to compete in."

* * *

So, they headed to join the others by the curtains, waiting for a couple of minutes for host, Mr Dufresne, started the competition. One by one, the girls were introduced and they stepped on stage, waving to the audience and posing to show off their dresses, before falling in. After that came the interview portion, and one by one, they stepped forward to answer the questions the host gave them. While Minnie wasn't completely confident when answering, her honesty in answering seemed to make up for this. Lola, on the other hand, received a slightly weaker than usual reception to her answer, though she didn't let it bother her. Regardless, once everyone had finished their turns, it seemed like the whole competition would come down to the talent portion.

Lola watched on from backstage, the last one listed to perform. She watched as the other competitors sang, danced and acted to the judges, hoping to show them that they deserved to win. Lindsey did a flawless tap dance once again, grinning to Lola as she walked off stage, but the Loud girl instead gave her attention to her protégé, whose rendition of _Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas_ had her, the judges and the audience in awe- her voice was soft and powerful at the same time, and she hit the high notes beautifully. Watching her perform made Lola smile, proud as ever to see her come so far.

Then came Lola's turn, and as always, it seemed like she was one of the favourites to win once again. Her ribbon dance to the tune of _Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy_ was executed with excellence, every step, flick, twirl and leap timed and positioned perfectly. It started slowly and built with the music, the rhythm flowing through her movements, and as the final notes hit, she raised her ribbon stick up high and twirled it around her, cocooning her in a twirling ribbon flurry before giving one final flick and lifting her foot into the air, giving only the slightest of wobbles which made her grimace for a split second before smiling as she regained herself, taking in the audience's applause with a bow.

After a brief deliberation, the judges gave their verdict to Mr Dufresne. "And now, the results," he declared. "In third place… rather surprisingly, if I may say so, is Miss Lola Loud!" Though she was disappointed not to have won, especially knowing that Lindsey would be grinning where she stood, she still smiled and bowed to the audience, accepting her result with dignity. "In second place… another surprise! Miss Lindsey Sweetwater!" The ginger girl gasped at this, before sheepishly smiling as she bowed, not wanting to seem too much of a sore loser. The other girls looked amongst each other, wondering who would win now that the two favourites were ineligible for first place. "And now, the winner… of the Royal Woods Sugar Plum Pageant… in her debut pageant, Miss Minnie Henderson!"

The arctic blonde girl cupped her hands over her mouth, in shock as the audience gave her a standing ovation, the spotlight falling on her. She looked over to Lola, who was beaming as she ushered for her to step forward. Minnie lowered her hands, giving a big smile as she stepped forward, and allowed Mr Dufresne to place a tiara on her head, and a sash that read 'Sugar Plum Princess' around her shoulder. She then gave a wave and a bow to the audience, tears brimming in her eyes at the unbelievable and amazing outcome.

* * *

After the girls had headed backstage, Lola began to pack her things away, when she felt someone hug her from behind, turning to see it was Minnie. "Thank you so much, Lola!"

Smiling as the girl let go, Lola turned around and told her, "congratulations, Minnie. You deserved it."

"I can't believe it! I thought for certain it was going to be you, you were amazing out there!"

"Thanks, but you were better. Do you think you're going to be in more pageants from now on?"

She nodded. "Yeah, I've never had this much fun before. I know that I can't ask you to coach me anymore, but I want you to know that I owe this to you. In fact…" Lola watched as she walked over to her bag, pulling out what looked like a red present box wrapped in a white bow, then heading back and handing it to the Loud girl. "This is for you. I wanted to get you something as a way of saying thanks, not just for coaching me, but for believing in me too. It's to be opened on Christmas Day."

"Minnie… this is too much."

"It's not at all. Besides, you gave me the confidence to compete today, and that's the greatest gift you could have given me."

Smiling, Lola hugged the girl, who returned it for a good few seconds before they separated. "Thank you, Minnie. Though, just so you know, I don't plan on losing again."

Minnie giggled, before telling her, "I'm sure you don't. Anyway, I better get going. I'll see you at the next pageant?"

"Absolutely. Oh, and Merry Christmas."

"Merry Christmas, Lola!" And so, as the girl walked away, Lola truly felt proud, through and through- despite losing, the pageant had been one of her favourites, as not only had Minnie won under her tutelage, but the gift she received was wonderful. Not the gift that Minnie had given her as thanks… but the new friend that she had made.

**HAPPY NEW YEAR!**


	10. Day 9- The Great Grotto

**This story idea was suggested by Sky3427. Thank you for the suggestion.**

The Royal Woods Mall was bustling, shoppers dashing to and fro with reckless abandon as they shopped for presents to get for their various friends, relatives and colleagues this holiday season. The shops had opened an hour early, but the Louds arrived a little while later, letting some of the initial rush die down before they entered, all wrapped up in their winter clothing.

"Alright, kids," Rita announced as her and her family passed through the automatic doors. "We'll meet at the food court at half past twelve, so don't be late. If any of you find you need a little extra cash, come and find me, but I can't give you much more. Now, since the twins want to go see Santa, someone will have to stand in line with them, and I know you all have shopping to do, so I want you to take turns watching them. Who is going to watch them first?"

Every sibling older than the twins immediately responded by yelling, "NOT IT", though Leni was slightly slower, making her sigh and say, "dang it".

"Alright, so Leni will stand with them for half an hour, then one of you will switch with her so she can do her shopping, and I don't want to hear any arguing about this. Are we clear?" They all nodded, convincing her enough to let them handle this. "Alright, in that case, have fun shopping, kids. Me and Lily will see you at the food court."

Not needing to be told twice, the Loud siblings began to head deeper into the mall. "So, you two looking forward to seeing Santa?" Leni asked the twins, holding their hands to make sure they didn't get lost.

"You bet!" Lana happily told the fashionista. "I already know exactly what I'm going to ask for, too!"

"Me too," Lola added. "I even have it written down for him in case he forgets."

"Don't be ridiculous, Lola. Santa doesn't forget things, that's how he knows what to get all the kids around the world."

"Well, excuse me for being prepared, but I have a _lot _I want to ask for." A dry chuckle from one side caught their attention, turning to see it had come from Lisa. "What's so funny?"

"The fact that you two believe the male homosapien currently appearing at this socio-commercial establishment is the same as the figure of Greek mythology is rather amusing," she stated, adjusting her glasses, though after a few seconds of silence, she saw three faces- the twins' and Leni's- staring back at her blankly, making her realise they hadn't understood. After a sigh at their 'imbecilic natures', she reworded it in simpler terms. "The man in this mall's grotto will not be the real Santa Claus."

This time, the twins understood, and they both laughed at it. "Oh, Lisa, you silly goose!" Lana teased, patting the scientist on the head, which made her grumble. "Young, naïve, little, Lisa…"

"The numbers make it irrefutable," Lisa firmly stated, swatting away the grease monkey's hand. "There are approximately 125 thousand shopping malls in the United States, which has a population of 327 million. Given the current world population of 7.75 billion, you multiply the number of malls by the proportion between the world and US populations, and that reaches a total of over 2.865 million shopping malls across the globe. If you assume that fifteen percent of those malls don't have a grotto, due to the different religions and cultures of other nations, that still leaves over 2.435 million malls with such attractions. Given that only one man by the name Kris Kringle exists, the likelihood of him being at this specific mall is only slightly higher than one in 2.5 million."

"Lisa, you seem to forget," Lola argued, "that Santa is a magical person. All your 'numbers' and 'facts' ignore that, so," and rather than finish that sentence with a closing point,Moshe stuck her tongue out at the young PhD, who deadpanned at the gesture.

"How witty… still, if you two wish to keep living in this disbelief, then by all means."

"Geez, don't be such a buzzkill, Lisa," Lana complained. "What happened to your Christmas spirit?"

"Nothing, sister unit. I am just stating that the man you are about to visit is inevitably going to be either a bearded man dressed in a Santa suit, or a man dressed in a Santa suit with a fake beard, rather than the genuine Santa."

"Well, like, why don't you just go to the grotto with them so you can see too?" Leni suggested, making the genius scoff again.

"Pass. I have other duties to attend."

"Pfft, yeah right!" Lola taunted. "You're just scared."

Lisa's eyebrow twitched slightly, leading to her challenging the pageant princess. "And pray tell, sister unit- what reason would I have to be scared?"

"Ooh, maybe she has Claustrophobia!" Lana suggested, before grinning evilly as she let out a booming, "ho, ho, ho!"

"Lana! Stop scaring her!" Leni cried, oblivious to Lisa's lack of emotion on her face.

"Claustrophobia is the fear of enclosed spaces, not Santa."

"And that's not what I meant," Lola clarified to her twin, still grinning as she stared down her younger sister. "She's scared of being proved wrong."

After saying this, she began chanting "you're wrong" at the brunette, with Lana joining her while Leni just watched on, not sure how to deal with this. Moreover, Lisa attempted to brush it off, but there was one factor that made this task impossible- for all of her intelligence and her scientific ability and her PhD, Lisa was still a four year old child, and when dealing with teasing of this level, four year old children weren't able to just brush it off like an older person could.

"Urgh, fine!" She snapped. "If it will silence your inane chanting, I will see that costumed buffoon, but once I have proven that he is indeed a stand in, I will not hesitate in my gloating."

"Yay!" Leni cheered. "This is gonna be fun! Alright, let's go. Lisa, hold Lana's hand so you don't get lost, okay?" With a roll of her eyes, Lisa obliged, grabbing her sister's hand and following the high schooler as they made their way towards the Christmas grotto, a small building within the mall with snow covered walls and roofing that made it look like a log cabin, fairy lights strung up all around it, and a shop worker dressed in a red and green elf costume stood by the golden door. Red velvet ropes held the customers in a queue, which Leni insisted, as they queued up, "was way busier the other day", and that they would only be there for "an hour, maybe a bit more".

"Ugh, an hour?!" Lola whined as she stood behind Leni. "This is gonna be so boring."

"Well, hopefully, the satisfaction of proving you wrong will make the mundane act of waiting in line worth it," Lisa reasoned to herself, knowing that they were gonna be there for a while.

* * *

So, the four of them waited in the queue to the grotto, slowly but surely making their way forward with every child that went in to visit Father Christmas. While the twins chatted to each other about some of the things they were going to say to Santa when they got to see him, Lisa and Leni kept to their phones- the former reading the latest scientific news, the latter texting her friends and checking her social media. After about half an hour, Luna came by to switch in for Leni, grumbling to herself about Lori being stuck up once the fashionista was gone, and after another half an hour, when they were close to the front of the line, the rocker saw her little brother walking over.

"I think I have all I need," he told Luna. "I can take over for you now."

She grinned, extending a fist out to him. "Cheers, bruh," she replied, allowing her brother to fist bump with her before they traded places. "Catch you at the food court, dudes!"

As she walked off, Lincoln turned to his smarter younger sister. "So, Lisa, how come you're queueing as well? I didn't think you'd be interested in this."

"She's not," Lola explained, a bit of mirth behind her voice. "She thinks that we aren't visiting the real Santa, and that it's just some fake, so she's going in to try and 'prove us wrong'."

"I wouldn't have put it quite so crudely," Lisa clarified, wiping some dirt from her glasses, "but that about sums it up."

"Oh…"

He was going to ask more about it, but the queue moved forward once more, and they found themselves at the front of the queue. The elf attendant approached them and said, "hey, welcome to Santa's Grotto! I'm assuming you guys are all together?"

"Yeah, it's my three sisters who are going in," Lincoln told her.

"Alright, so, while that girl is currently seeing the big man, I should let you know that we only allow two children in at a time. Which two of you will be going in first?"

"We will!" Lola and Lana eagerly told her, making the 'elf' chuckle.

"Okay, not a problem! Once that girl comes out, head on in, and make sure to be polite to Santa, okay?" The twins nodded, so she nodded back. "Very good. Okay, once the door opens, I'll let you go in."

Fortunately for them, they didn't have to wait too long, and eventually, the golden door opened, the girl who had been just in front of them exiting and running over to her father, a gift in hand. "Have fun, girls!" Lincoln told the twins as the 'elf' ushered them into the grotto, before turning to Lisa once the door had shut. "Lisa, be honest with me… why do you want to tell the girls that this Santa isn't really Santa?"

"I hadn't originally cared too much, but once someone insults my intelligence and my calculations, it is in my nature to prove them wrong."

"But, Lisa, they're still just kids, just like you are. Don't you think that, if you do that, it'll ruin their Christmas spirit?" She opened her mouth to argue, but found herself taking a moment to think about what he had said. "Look, I hear where you're coming from… just don't let your pride ruin this holiday for the twins, okay?"

She shook her head, clearing away her uncertainty. "I highly doubt it would come to that," she told her brother, just as the twins re-emerged from the grotto. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I believe it is my turn."

She walked towards the grotto entrance, ignoring Lola's taunt of "seems pretty real to me" as she entered the grotto, the door closing behind her. The inside of the grotto was quite quaint, a fireplace on one wall, and what Lisa assumed to be a fake door on the wall next to it. In the middle of the room, facing the fireplace, was a red and gold chair, sat within was the individual claiming to be Santa- red suit, red hat with white bobble, white beard, large stature and all.

"Welcome, little one!" He spoke in a jovial voice, patting his lap. "Come."

Lisa obliged, walking over and allowing the Christmas figure to lift her up and sit her on his lap. "Follicles of facial hair seem real enough," she mused, causing the man to laugh.

"Yes, this beard of mine is still going strong, and I can assure you that there's no 'padding' to my suit, either, Lisa."

"So, my elder sister units mentioned me to you, no doubt telling you-"

"That you don't believe I'm really Santa? Actually, I knew that before they even entered my grotto."

A dry laugh escaped the girl's mouth. "Pishposh! Impossible."

"Not so, Lisa Loud. You forget, a bit of Christmas magic can do wondrous things."

"Yet there are no recollections of Santa Claus ever being able to predict what a person will say."

"I wouldn't call it prediction, Lisa. Remember the song? 'He's writing his list, he's checking it twice, he's gonna find out who's naughty or nice'. It's my job to know what the children of the world do, so I can decide whether or not they deserve presents or coal in their stocking."

"Whoever wrote your script certainly prepared for a lot of different contingencies."

He laughed again, this time more boisterously, even having to wipe a tear away from his eye. "Oh, Lisa… for a girl of science, you know how to make me laugh."

"Well, I'm glad something came out of this for you. It seems that perhaps I have-" A noise cut her off. It was faint, but she could have sworn it sounded… animal like? "What was that?"

"That? Well, why don't I show you?" He placed her down on the floor then rose from his chair, walking over to what Lisa had previously assumed to be a fake door. "Now, you must promise to keep this a secret, young lady. No, "I have no room in my brain for this" nonsense. Are we clear?"

If she hadn't before, Lisa definitely suspected something now at hearing that. "I see… well, in that case, I give you my word." The bearded man smiled, then placed his hand on the door, which glowed for a second before being pushed open. As he walked through, Lisa followed after and gasped- they were now in what appeared to be a stable, and within the stable were nine different pens, each with a different name hanging above the pen gates. What really had Lisa in awe were the animals within the pens- "these are… the reindeer!"

Santa nodded, picking up a carrot from a nearby bucket, which he fed to the reindeer in the pen that read "Dasher". "Yes, these girls have been helping me get around the world for a good number of years now. Of course, it hasn't always been these particular reindeer- after all, they can only live for so long, so their names that most people know are more like code names. Helps me to remember after so many centuries of doing this."

"But, I don't understand! Physically, this should not be possible! The grotto seen at the mall should not be large enough to accommodate… this!"

"Well, a bit of Christmas magic will do that. How do you think I get all the presents into one sack? How do you think these girls fly?"

"Girls?"

He rolled his eyes at the girl's question. "When you've been doing this for a few centuries, a lot of details get mixed up and forgotten. The whole world thinks my reindeers are all male, but that couldn't be further from the truth- for whatever reason, only female reindeer can fly, yet they always get portrayed as male reindeer. I think it started with that movie."

"Movie? Are you referring to Rudolph?"

"Exactly. I don't suppose you'd like to meet her?" Though a little embarrassed at how childlike she would act if she could, she nodded. "Come on, then." He led her towards the back of the stable, where he opened the pen that said "Rudolph", allowing Lisa to see a young female reindeer, currently asleep. It appeared the same as all the other reindeer, with the exception of the nose, which was as red as the song implied. As Lisa and Santa slowly approached the reindeer, its eyes flickered open, falling on the girl with curiosity. "You can pet her if you like."

Though she had never felt more like a child, that also meant that she felt less inhibited. She slowly held out her hand, moving it to just behind the reindeer's antler and started to stroke its fur. Rudolph certainly seemed happy, gently nuzzling into the girl's hand as her nose glowed slightly.

"Remarkable… her nose glows when she is happy, like a dog wagging its tail…" she turned to the bearded man, a smile on her face. "How does her nose glow?"

"No one knows. The only answer I can give you, is Christmas magic." He kneeled down next to her as he told her, "since you're a scientist, I understand that you often need an explanation for things you don't understand… but that isn't what Christmas is about. To some, magic means something that science can't explain… but to me, it means you don't need to explain it. It's wondrous enough on its own, without any need to understand how. If you just let it be what it is, then that's all the explanation you'll need."

* * *

To Lisa, her time in the grotto had been a considerable amount of time, but to those outside, she had only been there for a minute before emerging through the golden door, a present in her hands. She saw her brother and her sister waiting for her, and walked over to them. "So, how was the grotto, Lisa?" Lincoln asked her.

"It was… rather a nice experience, brother," she told him.

"So, Lisa, was Santa real?" Lola asked next, her and Lana both raising challenging eyebrows with smug grins. Much to their surprise, however, Lisa chuckled.

"It seems I must concede defeat. Lana, Lola… you were right. The man in there was, indeed, Father Christmas."

Both twins blinked, looking to each other in disbelief… for all of about five seconds, before they high fived each other and cheered. "We were right!"

Lincoln chuckled at their reaction. "Well, we've still got some time before lunch, and I'm sure that you guys still have some shopping to do, so let's go get that done." The twins al, nodded, holding each other's hand while Lana also took her brother's. He was a little surprised when Lisa took hold of his other hand, but when he looked down and saw her smiling, they nodded to each other before they made their way through the mall. Lisa didn't even care about the fact the twins were still boasting about being right- after what she had witnessed, it was the first time she was actually glad to have been proven wrong.

**THE END**


	11. Day 10- Snowy Day At The Park

The snow was falling around at the Royal Woods Park, and throughout, children were playing and having fun. Building snowmen, throwing snowballs, making snow angels, skating on the frozen lake- if they could imagine doing it, they did it. Smiles were spread across every face as they had fun, making the most of their day. Approaching the entrance to the park, Lola and Lana were accompanied by their older brother Lincoln, all dressed up in their winter attires. The princess of the twins had a pair of ice skates hanging over her shoulder by their laces, while the mechanic and animal lover had a sled under her arms. The boy wasn't too thrilled about being out, having originally planned to spend the day reading his comics or playing video games, but his mother needed her children out of the house for the day so she could wrap presents up, and they were the only Loud kids still in. Fortunately, he managed to get some of his friends to agree to meet him in the park, so it wouldn't be too bad for him.

"Alright, girls," he told them as they made their way through the open arch into the park, "we're here. You two said a friend of yours was gonna be with you, didn't you?"

"Yeah, Skippy said he'd be here when we get here," Lana replied. "He said he'd be over by the lake."

"Don't worry, Linky," Lola told him, waving off his concerns. "We'll be fine, you don't need to be watching over us. Go and have fun with your friends, and we'll have fun with ours."

Though he was skeptical, and knew that his mother would 'kill' him if she found out he hadn't been watching them, he knew they were stubborn on this. "Well, if you insist," he sighed in a resigned tone. "Just promise me you two will behave, and that if anything happens, you will come and find me. Okay?"

"Okay!"

"Alright, good. I'm gonna wait at that bench over there until the guys and Stella get here, so go have fun, and I'll come and get you in an hour or so."

"Thanks, Linky!"

With that, they raced through the park, eager to meet up with Skippy by the lake. Of course, Lola knew that Lana was more excited about seeing him than she was, but she wasn't going to let her beat her there. The closer they got to the lake, the easier it was for them to find Lana's friend, the brown haired boy kneeled next to the frozen water looking in. While he still had his usual green cap on backwards, he was wearing a blue high-vis puff jacket, winter cargo pants and snow boots, plus blue woollen gloves.

"Hey, Skippy!" Lana called out, getting the boy to lift his head up and turn around, smiling as he saw the twins racing over to him.

"Lana! Lola! You made it!" He called back, waving as their sprint slowed to a halt in front of him. "Nice to see you, girls!"

"Nice to see you too, Skippy!" Lana told her friend. "We would have gotten here sooner, but Lola was too busy getting ready!"

"Well, excuse me if I like to look good when I go out!" Lola argued, flicking her hair with her hand. "I have an image to maintain, after all, even if you don't care about your image as much."

"I dunno, I think she looks pretty nice," Skippy suggested. "That's a cool coat you've got."

"Aww, thanks, Skip," Lana told the boy, blushing as she brushed her foot in the snow in front of her. "So, what were you doing looking at the ice?"

"I was seeing if I could see any of the fish swimming below."

"Pssh! How are the fish gonna swim in a _frozen_ lake?" Lola laughed, to which Lana rolled her eyes.

"It's only the top layer that's frozen, Lola. It keeps the water beneath it warm enough for the fish to survive the winter until things warm up properly."

"She's right. Come take a look." Following Skippy's suggestion, the two twins walked with him up to the edge of the frozen lake and kneeled down next to it, using their gloved hands to try and see through it, and had similar reactions to what they saw- while Lola was surprised, they both smiled in awe as they saw fish swimming down below, even jumping back slightly when one swam into the ice before swimming away. "Pretty cool, ain't it?"

"It sure is," Lana replied, watching the fish swimming below. "It's like they don't even know that Christmas is almost here."

Lola looked at her twin, confused by that statement. "Do fish even celebrate Christmas?" When the grease monkey shrugged at her, she rolled her eyes. "Whatever. I guess it does look pretty cool, but I don't want to spend all day staring into the lake." She got to her feet, dusting the snow off of her knees. "So, what are we going to do first? I was thinking of ice skating."

"Lola, neither of us has skates," Lana pointed out, "and you hate sharing yours. We're not gonna just sit and watch while you twirl about on ice the whole time."

"It's called a pirouette, actually! And, anyway, what would you suggest we do?"

"Well, we can all take turns with my sled." She held up the blue snow sled to put an exclamation on her point. "We can ride it on at a time or we can ride it together, and it'll be so much fun! Racing down the hill super fast-"

"Until we inevitably crash and get hurt? No thank you."

"Hey, what if we did both?" Skippy suggested. "That way, you didn't bring them for nothing. We can always build a snowman or something later."

"Well, how would we do that?"

* * *

A few moments later, they found themselves next to the frozen lake, with Lola now in her ice skates- having given her snow boots to Lincoln so they didn't get taken- while Lana was sat in her sled, Skippy holding on to it behind her. "Alright, on my count, we race from this side of the lake to the other!" Lana declared, the three of them all having a competitive look in their eyes. "First one to get there wins! Ready?"

"We've got this, Lana!" Skippy confidently assured her.

"In your dreams!" Lola dared, not taking her eyes off of the imaginary finish line.

"Alright, let's do this! Three… two… one… go!"

With that, they raced. Lola took off on her skates whilst Skippy began to push the sled, jumping on it behind the girl in the red cap once they were far enough onto the ice. Lola had the start at first due to the fact Skippy didn't have much traction to push Lana's sled, but the two cap wearers used their hands to help slide along the ice, eventually closing the gap between the two of them. Lola saw them starting to draw up level with her, so she started to skate faster, which only made Lana and Skippy push their sled along faster. The three of them were neck and neck, their race even attracting the attention of some of the other park goers. They got past the middle of the ice in a dead tie, and continued to pick up the ace as they got closer and closer to the other side. The two twins looked at each other, staring at each other like two lifetime rivals, before focusing on getting to the end as fast as they could. It was about a quarter of the way before the end, however, that Lola realised one slight issue.

'If I go off the edge of the lake, I'll fall!' She realised, just as the end was coming clear. She had no intention of hurting herself, so right before the end, she made a small jump and turned sidewards, skidding to a halt whilst the other two went flying off the edge and through the snow, cheering in victory. Looking past them, she saw where they were heading and gasped. "Lana! Tree!"

"What?" Lana asked, confused by the statement, though when she looked ahead and saw the tree ahead of them, she understood. "Oh."

Neither had time to react before they shedded straight into the tree, falling off the sled while also knocking a pile of snow from the tree to fall on top of them. Lola rushed over as best as she could in her skates, trudging through the snow towards them. "Lana! Skippy! Are you okay?"

A moment later, two capped heads popped out of the snow, dizzily shaking about for a moment until they shook it off. When Lana and Skippy looked at each other, they both started laughing. "What a rush!" Skippy cheered.

"That was awesome!" Lana added. "We should do that again!"

"Ugh, why am I not surprised?" Lola sighed, shaking her head. "Well, this proves you didn't hit your heads, at least."

"C'mon, Lola, you've gotta admit that was pretty-" she stopped when they heard something behind her. They looked around to try and see if they could see anything, but it wasn't until Lola looked down that she noticed a hole in the snow. After pointing it out to the others, Lana slowly approached it, and when she looked into the hole, she gasped. "Look!"

She reached into the whole and pulled out a blue egg, both Skippy and Lola gasping as well. "No way!"

"Why is it blue?" Lola questioned. "Is it cold?"

"Nah, I think it's supposed to be that colour," Lana suggested. "Can't remember what kind of bird this egg belongs to, though." She then felt the egg start to shake in her hand, and saw a crack appear in the egg. "It's hatching!"

They all watched in wonder as the egg shook and cracked in Lana's hand, eager to see what would come out of it. A beak poked out after a few more cracks appeared, trying to break through, the top of it's head brown while the bottom was red, separated by a line of grey. The head disappeared back into the shell, and a moment later, the shell of the egg broke apart, revealing a baby red breasted robin, chirping in surprise now that it had hatched.

"AWWWWW!" the two twins gushed. "IT'S SO CUUUUTE!"

"A little robin!" Skippy said, also smiling at the cute little creature. When he lifted a finger to pet the bird, it seemed to react well to it, chirping and leaning towards his finger. "Well, would you look at that?"

"Where did he even come from?" Lola asked.

This question made their eyes go wide and their smiles dropped. Looking up, Lana saw a relatively low branch, and perched on top of it, a nest. "Oh, no," she said, frowning in realisation. "We must have caused it to fall when we hit the tree…"

Skippy saw his friend looking upset, so he patted her on the shoulder. "It was an accident," he assured her. "We didn't know there was a nest up there."

"Yeah… but we still disturbed it…" After a few seconds of frowning, she donned a determined expression and proclaimed, "we have to get it back in the nest!"

"But how are we going to do that?" Lola pointed out. "That's so high up!"

"Maybe the groundskeeper has a ladder we can use!" Skippy suggested.

"That's brilliant!" Lana exclaimed, smiling now they had a plan. "Let's go!"

"I'll catch up with you," Lola told them, pointing to her ice skates. "I'm not going to be much use in these." The two junior mechanics rolled their eyes, before heading off on their mission.

* * *

They found the groundskeeper's cabin, a wooden, snow covered cabin with a green metal door. Skippy went up and knocked on the door, hearing creaking floorboards as someone approached from within. When the door opened, Skippy stepped back and stood next to Lana as they saw an old man with a thick grey beard, wearing a black winter coat over a grey jumper and green overalls, grey boots and a black flat cap. He looked at the two kids with uncaring eyes as he said, in a grizzly voice, "what do you want?"

"We were wondering if you had a ladder we could borrow," Lana explained. "This bird fell out of its nest, and we want to put it back."

"Are you joking? I've not got time for this."

"Wait, please, we'll bring it right back!" Skippy's pleas went unheard as the groundskeeper went back inside, closing the door with a slam. "Well, thank you very much."

"No matter," Lana assured him. "We'll just have to get up to that nest ourselves. Let's get back to the tree and see what we can do." He nodded, before the two ran back to the tree, Lana being careful not to drop the newborn bird. Eventually, they reached it, finding it with ease after having left the sled there. She opened her hands slightly to look at the robin and tell it, "don't worry, little guy. We're gonna get you right back up there before your mama comes back."

"If we had a rope or something, we could throw it around the branch and use it like a pulley," Skippy mused.

"The snow makes it too slippy. We might knock the nest out. The only way we're going to get it back up is for one of us to climb up there."

"I can do it."

Lana smiled while shaking her head. "Thanks, but I need to do this. Besides, I need you to catch me if I slip or anything." He blushed a little at the idea, nodding in agreement. "Okay. Let me know if there's anything I can use to climb."

She then proceeded to place the robin in her coat pocket, removing her gloves and putting them in her other pocket before approaching the tree. She raised her hands to grip into the bark, finding it wasn't too slippery, and began to climb. Skippy spotted her as she steadily made her way up the tree, moving left and right for better grip. As she reached the halfway point between the floor and the branch, Lola returned to the tree.

"Is she nuts?!" she yelled. "She's gonna fall!"

"Don't say that!" Skippy scolded. "If you say that, it's gonna get to her head. Besides, she's got this."

Lana couldn't hear the two talking as she got higher up the tree, the nest getting closer and closer with each step and each grab. It took her a while, but at long last, her hand took hold of the branch the nest was on, and she pulled herself up, sitting on it so she could shimmy along. A sudden breeze made her wobble slightly, scaring the two kids watching below, but she held on. Once the nest was in arm's reach, she placed her hand in her pocket and lifted out the little bird.

"Here you go," she said as she delicately placed the robin back in the nest. "Be good to your mama when she gets back, okay?" The bird chirped and Lana smiled, giving a wave before shuffling back along the branch. "I'm coming down!"

"Be careful, Lana!" Both Skippy and Lola yelled back.

"I will!" She backed up until she was against the tree and lifted her leg over the branch, but as she tried to grab onto the tree, the snow caused her to slip, so she had to grab on the branch and dangle from it. She tried lifting her leg up to wrap around it, but the snow meant she couldn't do that. "Uh, guys? Help!"

"Hang in there, Lana!" Skippy shouted up, before turning to Lola. "Did you two come with anyone?"

"Yeah, my brother Lincoln!" She told him. "He's with his friends, I'll go get them!"

"Hurry!" She ran off in search of the older kids, leaving Skippy to look back up to Lana. "Lola's gonna go get your brother!"

"I don't think I can hang on!" She replied, fear dripping in her voice. Skippy grimaced at the idea of her falling, then made a decision. Taking off his gloves and putting them in his pockets, he practically leapt onto the tree and started to climb up. "What are you doing?!"

"I'm- gonna- help- you- down!" He told her, making swift progress as he climbed up the tree. It took him barely under a minute to get up to the branch where Lana was, nearly half the time she took, and extend a hand to her. "Take my hand!"

"I… I don't think I can."

"Lana… you can trust me." Their eyes met, and after a second of doubt, Lana shakily reached out her hand, allowing him to take it. "There we go." He moved her hand towards the tree, which she gripped onto, lowering her legs so she could get a grip with them before letting go off the branch and hugging the tree for dear life. "It's okay, you're fine. I'm gonna climb down with you. If at any time, you think you're gonna fall, grab my hand. Okay?"

She nodded, and the two of them started to climb down the tree together. There were a couple of moments where she thought she was going to fall, but Skippy helped her to keep calm and support. It was a slow descent, but eventually, Skippy got to the bottom and allowed Lana to leap into his arms when she was low enough to. Once she was back on her feet, she pulled Skippy into a tight hug.

"Thank you," she told him, her eyes a little teary.

"It's okay," he told her back. "I was just helping."

"No. That was really brave what you did."

"Well… I actually thought you were really brave." Both kids blushed, which only grew when Lana kissed the boy on his cheek, his hand raising to where she kissed it as a goofy grin took over his face. "Aw, shucks."

Soon, Lola returned with Lincoln and his friends, and Lana ran up to hug her brother. Although he was initially disappointed in her for climbing the tree without any supervision, after an explanation about why she did it and how the groundskeeper was mean to them, he calmed down, thankful that she was safe from harm. He and his friends invited the younger kids to hang with them after this, and as they walked away, Lana looked back in time to see the mother robin return to her nest, embracing her chick. This got the little animal lover to smile- though it had been a scary experience, she had done something good.

**THE END**


	12. Day 11- Can't Rock Around The Tree Alone

**This story idea was suggested by BarnMaker. Thank you for the suggestion.**

The winter roads of Royal Woods were full of traffic, shoppers heading to and from the stores and the mall in attempts to complete their Christmas shopping, adults heading home after their days at work, people hanging out with friends- no one seemed particularly bothered, as being in their cars meant they didn't have to walk around town, given how cold out it was. In one particular van, a burly Brit by the name of Chester Monroe- better known by his friends and colleagues as Chunk- was bopping his head in the driver's seat as some classic rock played over the radio. He turned his head over, seeing the two girls sat in the back doing the same. "Great show today, luvs!" He told them.

"Cheers, Chunk," Luna replied, still on a high from the show. It was their last performance for the year, and they killed it to a whole new level. "Still, couldn't have done it without you steppin' in on drums."

"Ah, you're just saying that, Luna."

"She's right, though," Sam argued. "You're pretty much the fifth member of the band at this point. Sure you don't wanna make it official?"

The big man gave a hearty chuckle. "Nah, you're alright, girls. Besides, still got me own band to stick with, and me and the guys ain't planning on packing it in yet."

"I suppose that's fair." They shook a little as they felt the van move, though they knew with the Christmas traffic that they would most likely stop again in a short while. "Feels weird to say that's the last show of the year."

"I know what you mean," Luna agreed. "There was supposed to be a New Years Eve gig, but Sully was supposed to be handling that, and I think he told me it fell through."

"Shame. Would've been nice to rock into the new year with you on a big stage, rock star." She saw the brunette turn a light shade of pink, making her giggle. "Oh, well. Can't play them all."

"Too right. So, you looking forward to Christmas?"

"Yeah, though not as much as Simon is. Little guy's hyper all year round, but once December hits, he seems to go off the rails on a crazy train."

Luna chuckled. "Yeah, I know what you mean. It turns to chaos at my house- twins running round, Luan telling her jokes, Lynn turning everything into a sport… and then December hits, and they turn it up to eleven!"

"Not like you to complain about anyone turning it up!"

"Who said that I was complaining?" This brought all three of them into laughter as the van moved along the road, traffic starting to move. "Nah, I love it."

"Amen to that." The blonde girl then turned to the driver and asked, "what about you, Chunk? You doing anything awesome on Christmas Day?"

"Nah, it's a quiet Christmas for me."

Both Sam and Luna looked at each other, mouths agape in shock. "Um… would you mind repeating that, Chunk, mate?" Luna asked. "It sounded like you said 'quiet'."

"Yeah, I know. Don't get me wrong, I love Christmas, but with me family all the way back in Blighty, I tend to just stick at home, then maybe pop to the pub later on."

"So… you just spend it by yourself?"

"Eh, sort of. I give me folks a ring in the morning, we chat for about an hour and it's lovely. I think me brother's gonna set it up so we can FaceTime this year."

"But, still," Luna said, "you're just… by yourself for the whole day? What about that woman you were seeing?"

"What, Sharon? Thought I told you, we broke up a couple weeks back." He heard the two girls "aww" in the back, so he softly shook his head. "It's fine, we split on good terms- our jobs meant we didn't see each other much. Still, we had a good time while it lasted." As he turned a corner, he found himself nearing the first stop of his journey. "Here we are, Luna! Home sweet home."

"Cheers, Chunk." The van slowed to a halt and she opened the back door, before turning to Sam. "So, uh… I'll see you soon, 'kay?"

"Yeah, of course," Sam replied, offering a small smile. "I'll text you tonight."

The two pressed their lips together for a quick and tender kiss, before Luna hopped out of the van and closed the back door to the van. As it drove away, she waved them off and headed inside, though she couldn't deny that her mind was on other things. Though she acted like things were right, for the rest of the day, Luna's mind kept coming back to that conversation in the back of Chunk's van. She knew that Chunk couldn't really go back to England for Christmas, but she just couldn't imagine him being happy on his own at this time of year. It was a time for togetherness, and spending time with the people you loved. Even as she lay in her bed that night, sleep eluded her because her mind kept going back to these thoughts.

'Has he always been spending Christmas alone?' she pondered, her eyes staring at the ceiling as if she had a fascination with the plastering. 'He must get so lonely… I know I would…'

Her thoughts were put to one side when she heard her phone ringing, so she threw her cover aside, climbed over and down the ladder, then grabbed her phone. Seeing it was her girlfriend trying to video call her, she walked out of the bedroom, headed downstairs and sat down on the couch before answering the call, the blonde rocker appearing on her screen.

"Hey, Luna," she heard Sam greet.

"Hey, Sam," she replied.

"Guess you couldn't sleep, huh?" Luna gave a soft laugh as she shook her head. "Me neither. Are, uh… are you still up for the same reason I am?"

"If you're still up because you can't stop thinking about Chunk, then yeah."

"I know. I just can't imagine how he's okay with spending Christmas alone."

"My thoughts exactly. I wish there was something we could do for him."

"I know, but I don't think there is. I mentioned it to my folks, they said they didn't think that we could take him in for Christmas."

"Yeah, my 'rents would probably say no as well- who knows how hard they work setting it up for the lot of us. Besides, even if we invited him, he'd probably turn it down. You know how proud he can be."

"Yeah… guess we really can't do anything. Chuck's gonna spend Christmas Day by himself."

"… wait…" Luna's previously somewhat tired eyes opened wide, a start of a smile appearing on her face. "That's it!"

Sam looked through the screen in confusion. "What's it?"

"Sam, is it cool if me and the rest of the band meet at your place tomorrow? Like, some time after lunch? I'll pass the message on to Sully and Mazzy."

"Uh, sure, I think my folks won't mind, but… what are you talking about?"

"I'll let you know tomorrow. I gotta go, don't wanna wake Mom and Popstar. See you tomorrow?"

Sam gave a nod and smile. "See you tomorrow, babe." They gave each other an air kiss before ending the call. With that, Luna practically bounded up the staircase, heading into her room and putting her phone back on her dresser before ascending the ladder. Climbing back under the covers, she rested her head on her pillow and shut her eyes- she needed to be rested for tomorrow.

* * *

The night went and the day came anew, and shortly after lunchtime, Luna found herself outside her girlfriend's house. She knocked on the door, not having to wait long before the girl with the blue highlight in her hair opened the door. "You made it," she greeted with a smile, pulling the brunette into a hug which they both used to kiss the other on the cheek. "Come on, the others already made it."

"Lead the way, dudette."

Luna shut the door behind her as Sam let her inside, leading her through the hallway to what was Sam's personal hangout spot, a place that always made Luna feel that little bit jealous- it was a fully decked out music room, with amps, instruments, mics and a recording desk, plus full sound proofing on the walls, plus a couple of posters and vinyl covers hung up. Sat behind the drums was Mazzy, drumsticks twirling in her hands whilst Sully was tuning his bass guitar. As Sam and Luna entered, they both looked up and smiled.

"Yo, Luna!" Sully greeted first. "Glad you could make it!"

"Yeah, especially since you asked us here," Mazzy added in her raspy voice. "So, we getting our jam on or what?"

"Actually, dudes, we got something else to talk about," Luna told them, catching them off guard. "When Chunk was dropping us off yesterday, he was telling us that he's gonna be spending Christmas all alone."

"No!" Sully exclaimed, with Mazzy giving a saddened, "you're kidding!"

"It's true," Sam confirmed, a small nod of her head. "Other than calling his folks in the morning, he's gonna be at his place by himself on Christmas Day."

"That sucks."

"Yeah, but what can we do?"

"That's why I called you here," Luna spoke up, walking to the centre of the room. "There's no way we can help make his Christmas Day better… but what if we could make his Christmas Eve better?" The others all had their full attention on her now, eager to know what she was going to say next. "What if we threw a little party? Just the five of us, Christmas Eve, to show him what he means to us."

"But, how would we pull that off?" Sully questioned. "We'd need food, drinks, music-"

"I hardly think music will be a problem," Sam pointed out.

"No, but a place to do this will be. I wanna help, but… if we don't have anywhere to do this, then there's not much we can do."

"Well, I was thinking we could speak with the Red Herring. Chunk's a regular performer and a pal with the owner. If we told them why, then they'd be sure to let us hire it out."

"That sounds pretty expensive, Lunes," Sam wondered. "I know you mean well, but even if we used the pay from our last performance, could we really make that happen?" Luna opened her mouth to speak, only to feel stumped, her face becoming crestfallen. "I know you're coming from a good place, babe… and I want this to happen as much as you. I just think we need to make sure it's actually possible."

Luna nodded- she had been so set on helping Chunk, she had forgotten to take that into account. Fortunately for her, though, someone else had an answer. "What if we had somewhere that we didn't have to pay for?" All eyes were now on the plum haired girl. "My bro Derek runs a bar on the North side of town, and he owes me a favour. Helped him hook up with a girl by playing at a party he was throwing. Anyway, he could let us rent it out, and we could do the bash there. Plus, he might even-"

"Mazzy, we're not getting drunk," Sully firmly told her, to which the drummer rolled her eyes behind her fringe.

"Just a thought."

Luna walked over to her, putting her arm on the cymbals of the drum kit. "Maz… do you really think he could do that for us?"

She simply smirked and leaned back against the wall behind her stool, pulling her phone out of her pocket and showing her contacts list, clicking on the one that said _Derek_ then holding her thumb over the call button. "If it's for Chunk, whatever it takes."

Luna's smile grew. "Cheers, girl." She turned around and turned to the others. "Alright, with Mazzy's bro handling location, we can focus on other stuff- Popstar might be able to help with food and drinks, but if needs be, we can source some stuff from a supermarket or something. Other than that, we just need to make the place look a bit festive… but I can't do it alone." She held her hand out, palm down, and looked between Sam and Sully. "You guys in?"

Sam immediately stepped up and put her hand on top of Luna's. "You know it, Luna." Sully sauntered over, a smile on his face as he added his hand to the pile, with Mazzy adding hers after him. "So, guys… let's plan a party."

* * *

"_Driving home for Christmas_", Chunk sang as he drove along the roads, tapping his finger on the steering wheel to the beat of the music. It was Christmas Eve, and he had just been to visit a friend of his at the retirement home, an older guy who helped him get his band's name out when they first started performing. He was something of a mentor to the Brit, and he made it a promise to visit him once a month, including Christmas Eve.

As he continued on his way, he heard his phone ringing, so he pulled over. Not even looking to see who it was, he answered the call. "'Ello?" What he heard was Luna, who sounded quite frantic. "Luna? What's wrong? … luv, I need you to calm down, where are you? … I'm on my way."

Hanging up the phone, he floored the gas and took off down the roads, heading towards a place he didn't know too well, but knew how to get there. He made sure he wouldn't be speeding, but went as fast as he could to get there. Luna and her band were like little siblings to him, and when one of them needed him, you could bet on your life that he would do whatever he could to get there. It took him about ten minutes, given snowy conditions and traffic, but he eventually got to a bar with a green neon sign that read, _Bar Over Troubled Water_. Chunk pulled up in the lot round the back, then got straight out of the car and locked it. He ran around to the front door and pushed his way inside.

"Luna?" He called in, heading through the corridor towards the bar area. "You in here?" The lights came on, and Chunk saw Luna, but she wasn't alone. She was stood with the rest of the band, all wearing paper crowns on their heads. The bar, which had a dressing of tinsel, was laid out with snacks and nibbles- chips, pretzels, pigs in blankets, cheese bites, biscuits and all sorts. There was also tinsel pinned up on the wall, plus a banner that read _Merry Christmas_, and even a Christmas tree in the corner. He looked around in awe, before looking at the Loud girl he was searching for. "What's going on?"

"Well, first off," she explained, "sorry about the call. Couldn't think of any other way to get you to come here."

"I don't understand."

"Remember our last gig?" Sam told him. "The one where you took me and Luna home afterward, and you told us about how you're spending tomorrow alone?"

"Well, we wanted to do something special for you," Mazzy added. "You've done a lot for us as our Roadie, and we wanted to show you how much you mean to us."

"You helped us out when we started out, and you've helped us out ever since," Sully recalled. "Not just carrying our gear around, but practicing with us, joining us on stage, being our biggest supporter."

Luna stepped forward and placed a hand on the big man's shoulder, smiling at him. "Remember how me and Sam said you're like our fifth member? Well, you're more than that. You're part of our family." It took a few seconds before anyone spoke, and in that time, the young band members saw something they had never seen before- Chunk started to tear up. "Chunk?"

"Guvs… this is the best thing anyone's ever done for me…" The high schoolers all smiled, walking over to envelope the Brit in a group hug, one he happily returned as best he could. They held it for a good few seconds, before eventually letting go, allowing him to wipe his tears away. "This is amazing, you lot. Thank you so much."

"No problem, Chunk," Luna told him. "Now, come on! This is a party, ain't it? Mazzy, hit the music!" The plum haired girl nodded, walking behind the bar and turning on the speakers, which were connected to her phone. She pressed play, and a familiar Brit Rock Christmas anthem began to play, so Luna held her hand out to the roadie. "Can I have this dance?"

He gave a slight chuckle before nodding. "As long as Sam don't mind, I'd be honoured."

"Hey, just give me the next dance!" Sam teasingly replied.

"I better get a dance after that too, Chunk!" Mazzy called from the bar.

"Eh, I'm good without," Danny told him, which made them all laugh.

So, they spent the next two hours at the bar, making the most of their time there- they danced and rocked out to music, they sat around and chatted together, they snacked on the food and drinks laid out for them. At one point, Luna pulled out a bowl filled with paper strips and used the chalkboard to host a game of Pictionary, which was won by Sam and Chunk, the latter of whom had a surprisingly good ability at drawing. Just as their time drew to an end, the high schoolers revealed one last surprise, which was that they had all brought presents for him. Of course, they were all even more surprised when he led them out to his van and revealed that he had presents for them as well.

Still, night came, and they all headed home, with Chunk offering them a lift back. Pulling up to the Loud family household, he slowed the van to a hold and turned to look at his final passenger. "Well, Luna, here we are," he told the brunette.

"Thanks, Chunk," she replied. "I'll give you a ring after lunch."

"Sure thing. And… thanks. Tonight meant a lot to me."

She simply smiled and leaned forward to him, giving him one last hug as she said, "you mean a lot to me, Chunk." They hugged for a little while, before saying their goodbyes, and after getting out of the van, she waved him off as he drove away. When she headed into the house, she knew she would sleep well that night- not just because of what was to come the next day, but because of what she had achieved that night.

**THE END**


	13. Day 12- Reminiscing Christmas Past

**(A/N: well, here we are! It's the twelfth day of Christmas, and the last of my one-shots for Twelve Loud Days. I still have an assignment to do for Uni, so it might not be right away that I upload the next chapter to Lincoln Gets Limber. Until then, thank you one and all to everyone who has read, favourited, followed and reviewed this anthology, and a big shout out to everyone whose ideas I used for these stories- LoudFam12, The Rooster Man, corbinace, DarthSidious04, LiamFitz20, Sky3427, Barnmaker, and the person who suggested the idea for today's fic, BurtonFan422.**

**Thank you all for your suggestions, thank you everyone for reading, and enjoy!)**

The night settled over Royal Woods, and all was quiet in the Loud House, the younger residents now snug in their beds. Christmas Day was in its final hours, and what a day it had been- presents unwrapped in the morning, toys played with in the afternoon following lunch, Christmas dinner, festive films and hot cocoa in the evening, it was a fun filled day for the whole family, but all good things come to an end. As the children slept soundly in their beds, worn out after all of the excitement, the two parents decided to stay up just a little bit longer, sitting in the living room with the fire on while sipping on warm cups of delicious Christmas tea, another of Lynn Sr's recipes.

"Well, that's Christmas over for another year," the patriarch of the family sighed. "Is it just me, or does it feel longer every year?"

Rita softly laughed behind her mug, crossing her leg and leaning back on the couch. "No, the kids just get more hyper each year," she told him, which made the man chuckle.

"And we only get older."

"We get _more experienced_." The husband rolled his eyes at his wife's 'version of facts'- she hated when anyone called her old, and always had some alternate way of describing it. "Still, I think I'm going to miss it when things get quieter."

"I know what you mean. Soon, the kids will all start moving out, and then it'll be quiet in here."

"Hard to imagine, isn't it?"

"It's hard enough to imagine it was once just you, me and Lori under this roof. Back then, we couldn't imagine what it would be like with more children to look after… yet now, I still can't wrap my head around the fact that there'll soon be one less person here."

"Me too. Still, we have at least another seventeen Christmases to come with kids in the house, and no matter what, they'll always be our kids. We raised them the best we can, and they'll go on to do great things."

He nodded, before allowing the sweet taste of his tea fill his throat once more. It was few moments later when they heard the familiar creaking of the staircase, and turned their heads to see their eldest daughter, stood about halfway up the stairs in her light blue tank top and white chequered pajama shorts.

"Oops," she said in a hushed voice. "Sorry, did I wake you?"

"Not at all, Lori," Rita assured her with a smile. "Your father and I were just talking for a bit. What are you doing up?"

"Oh, well… I couldn't sleep. I thought getting some water might help."

"Well, why don't you sit down with your mother and I'll get you some of my Christmas tea," Lynn suggested, standing from his arm chair. "I already made a pot, it won't take a moment."

The high school senior smiled and told him, "thanks, dad."

While the father of eleven went into the kitchen, Lori walked down the rest of the stairs and sat down on the couch next to her mother, not resisting when her mother pulled her into a side hug and even lifting her feet onto the couch so she could lean into it. It wasn't long before Lynn returned, a new mug of steaming tea in his hands. "Here you go."

Lori accepted the mug, the aroma already filling her nose. "That smells amazing!" She didn't even wait to take a sip, a relaxed sigh filling the room afterwards. "Wow… that is literally the best tea I've ever tasted."

"Aww, shucks, Lori!"

Rolling her eyes at how well her husband took the compliment, Rita looked to her daughter. "So, what's keeping you up? You know we're going to see Pop Pop tomorrow."

"Yeah, I know. I was just… thinking…"

The two adults locked eyes, parental instincts setting in as they focused their attention on their daughter. "What were you thinking about?"

"Well…" She took another drink from her tea, debating whether or not to tell them, though she knew that she would feel better talking to them about it. "This is my last Christmas before I go to the city. I'll be starting college in nine months, and… after that… I don't know how much I'll be here." She tilted her head back and looked up to her mother. "Don't get me wrong, I want to. This is my home, and I'll do whatever I can to visit, but…"

Rita nodded, not needing to hear the rest. "I know what you mean, Lori. You're about to make the first big step into adulthood, and it seems scary. Sometimes, it's the littlest things that make it seem all the more daunting, but you have to remember. Once you're there, all that seems to fade away, and it's all so worth it in the end."

"She's right," the Loud patriarch chipped in. "If I didn't go to college, I'd never have been able to be the man I am today, and I wouldn't have such a wonderful family."

"And it wasn't just that year abroad to London that helped him there." Rita returned her gaze to her daughter. "Have we ever told you about our first Christmas together?"

"I don't think so," Lori confessed. "When was that?"

"Well, it was close to a year after we started dating, about ten months. I had met his family pretty early on in our relationship, but I hadn't introduced your father to my parents by this time. Well, my mother was practically begging me to bring him round for Christmas so that they could finally meet."

"We talked about it for a while," Lynn continued, a smile appearing on his face out of nostalgia, "and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't nervous. All I knew about Albert at the time was that he was a military man, and that made him sound a lot scarier than he actually was back then."

"But, I was able to convince him to go through with it, and on Christmas Day, he showed up at our front door."

* * *

_A brown haired man stood outside of a house, dressed in brown trousers, a dark green Christmas sweater and winter boots. He held a small pile of presents in his arms, which made it a little difficult for him to ring the doorbell. When he eventually did, he didn't have to wait long before the door was opened by a muscular white haired man with a thick grey moustache, wearing a white short sleeved dress shirt, blue trousers with a red tie and a black belt and black dress shoes. The short sleeved of his shirt revealed the anchor tattoo on his right arm. _

"_Hello," the brown haired man greeted. "I'm Lynn, Lynn Johnson. Is this the Loud family residence?"_

"_You're at the right place," the old man replied, giving a smile. "You must be the mystery man my daughter's been dating. It's nice to finally meet you."_

"_It's a pleasure to meet you too, sir. Forgive me for not shaking your hand, but I don't want to drop any of these presents."_

"_I can see." He looked past the man, seeing a blue van parked in the driveway. "Is that a V Series van right there?_

"_Yeah, a '66. My father gave it to me as a graduation present."_

"_That's a nice van right there. Looks like you've taken good care of it."_

_Lynn smiled. "Thank you, sir."_

"_Call me Albert. Now, come on, let's get you inside. My daughter's been eagerly waiting for you to arrive. Just wipe your feet and take your shoes off, then head on through." _

_Lynn nodded, allowing the elderly man to lead him inside while he closed the door after him. After he wiped his feet and removed his boots, he headed through into a dining room with red carpet and blue wallpaper, Christmas decorations all along the wall while the dining table was covered in a red cloth, ready to be set for dinner later. The living room adjoining it had an open wall plan, allowing him to see the décor- a green carpet underneath the black sofa and two armchairs that faced the TV, while a green Christmas tree was lit up in the corner. The walls had grey wallpaper with thin red stripes, and was adorned with pinned up Christmas cards and family photos. Sat on the couch and one of the arm chairs. were two women- one the age of Albert with grey curly hair, wearing a white sweater, pink pants and pink slippers, whilst the other was a blonde woman Lynn's age, wearing a pink sweater and brown trousers with white fluffy slippers. Deciding not to keep them waiting, Lynn entered the living room. "Merry Christmas!" He declared, to which the two women turned to him and smiled, the younger woman eagerly standing up._

"_You made it!" She exclaimed, walking over and hugging him, whilst both made sure not to drop the presents. "Merry Christmas, honey."_

"_Merry Christmas, sweetie."_

"_Come on in." She took the presents from her boyfriend and placed them on the coffee table, then led Lynn over to the older woman, who was standing from the arm chair. "Lynn, this is my mom. Mom, this is Lynn."_

"_It's nice to meet you, ma'am."_

"_My, how polite!" The woman spoke with a smile. "Call me Valerie, dear. How was your trip here?"_

"_It was good. Sorry if I'm a little late, I had to stop at a gas station for a quick top up."_

"_Don't be silly, you're right on time!" Rita assured him. "Come on, sit down."_

_He let Rita lead him to the couch, sitting down next to his girlfriend whilst Valerie sat back down in her arm chair and Albert came in and sat down in the arm chair next to hers. "So, dear," Valerie spoke, "Rita has told us a fair bit about you. She said that you work in IT?"_

"_Yeah, I work in IT for a local travel company," he confirmed. "I mainly help with handling e-mails, both between the higher ups and other departments and with promotional emails for the customers, but I also help keep the website working."_

"_That sounds very technical," Albert remarked. "Honestly, I don't get how those computers work. My dad taught me how to use a morse code machine, but I can't figure those things out for the life of me."_

"_He's never been good with technology," Rita told Lynn. "He's old fashioned like that."_

"_Excuse me, young lady, but I'm fine with technology. You've seen how well I've kept our car in shape over the years. And who was it that got the TV set up?_

"_Al, we had to call in an electrician after you fell off the roof setting up the aerial," Valerie reminded him._

"_And it doesn't take technology to fix the car, dad," Rita added._

"_Ah, you don't know what you're talking about." He turned to Lynn and asked, "you know what I'm talking about, right, Lynn?"_

"_Well, technically, it's engineering, not technology, sir."_

"_Ha! I like the kid already!" Valerie laughed, which led to her and Rita laughing, shortly followed by Albert and then Lynn as well. "Now, then, what did you bring with you?"_

_So, Lynn handed out the presents he had brought with him to the Louds- a fancy British tea and a China tea set for Valerie, a Naval aircraft carrier model for Albert, and a diamond necklace for Rita. He also received gifts from the Louds, those being a nice scarf from the two parents, as well as a cookbook by his idol from Rita, and he was grateful for them both. After that, he spent time with the family- watching the TV whilst chatting Albert about things like the Navy and his studies in the U.K., helping Valerie in the kitchen to cook up Christmas dinner, and playing a couple of games with the family in the living room._

_Eventually, dinner came, and with Lynn's assistance in the kitchen, Valerie helped to put on a veritable spread for them all, with a perfectly roasted turkey as the centrepiece. No one had a single complaint, all enjoying the delicious meal they shared together. They ate, chatted, laughed and smiled, from starters to dessert, with Albert offering a lovely toast to celebrate their health, their futures, and their love._

_Afterwards, they sat in the living room for a while with cups of coffee or wine in their hands, until Lynn looked up at the clock and saw that it was quarter past seven. "I need to get going," he declared, standing from the sofa. "I need to be back before the landlord locks up."_

"_You'd be welcome to stay the night here," Valerie offered, to which he shook his head._

"_Thanks, but I'm heading to my mom's house early tomorrow, and it's pretty far."_

"_Alright. Well, it's been absolutely lovely to meet you, dear."_

"_Yeah, it's been nice getting to know you at last," Albert added. "You're always welcome to come by again, so don't be a stranger."_

"_Of course. I've had a great time today, so thank you for letting me come today."_

"_It's been our pleasure."_

"_I'll walk you to the door," Rita offered, which Lynn nodded to. He gave a hug to Valerie and a handshake to Albert, then grabbed his gifts and followed Rita to the front door. "Thank you for coming. I know you said your mom wasn't too happy about you not going to hers."_

"_It's fine, we talked it out, and she's happy I'm getting to know your parents. They're pretty cool, by the way."_

"_Well, it means a lot to me that you came."_

"_And it means a lot to me that you trust me enough to introduce me to your family." She gave a small giggle, which he returned with a chuckle of his one. "Well, guess I should go."_

"_Before you do… look up." He did just that, seeing the dangling mistletoe hanging from the ceiling, then looked back at Rita in time for them both to press their lips together in a sweet, festively romantic gesture. When they released the kiss five seconds later, their cheeks were red but their smiles were big. "Merry Christmas, Lynn."_

"_Merry Christmas, Rita."_

_With that, he made his way out the door, walking over to his car. He opened the door, put his presents in the passenger seat, then closed the door and buckled up. As he drove away, he waved to Rita as she waved back, neither seeing that the older couple were waving him off through the living room window._

"_He's a sweet boy," Valerie told her husband, "and she cares for him a lot."_

"_I agree," he responded. "I think he's good for her."_

"_Who knows? Next year, there might be more than just him and Rita spending Christmas with us."_

"_Hopefully, they'll get married first."_

_She looked to her husband in amused surprise. "Look at you, talking about marriage! You really have taken to him, haven't you?"_

"_I might have." He turned around as his daughter returned to the living room, and smiled. 'He really is good for her.'_

* * *

"It wasn't long after that, your mom and I got engaged," Lynn continued to speak. "Your grandfather allowed me to move into their house so that we could prepare for the wedding together, and my boss allowed me to work from home, since it meant moving further away from the office. It took us about eight months, and a couple of disagreements here and there, but we made it work, and we had a beautiful wedding. We returned from our wedding in time for Christmas, and your grandfather surprised us by telling us that he'd bought us a house, the same one we started our family in, and the house we're in right now." As another memory came to mind, he gave a chuckle. "Let me tell you, our first Christmas with you was interesting. Your mother was a few months pregnant with Leni at the time, and-"

"Lynn?" His wife interrupted, making him look over. He was going to ask her what she was going to say, but when he saw his eldest daughter with her eyes closed, breathing gently in and out with her head on her mother's shoulder, he simply smiled. "Let's save that story for another time."

"You're right. Let's get this one to bed."

Standing from his arm chair, he walked over and gently scooped up the high schooler in his arms, then began to head up the stairs, his wife following not too far behind. Taking her to her bedroom, Lynn gently laid her down in her bed while Rita covered her up and tucked her in, just like when she was a little girl. They both placed a gentle kiss on her head and whispered a good night to her, before heading back downstairs. They put out the fire and returned to their bedroom, sharing a kiss before calling it a night, not knowing they each had the same thought in their mind- they had twelve reasons to be happy this Christmas, twelve gifts in their lives, and they weren't material goods or experiences.

They both had a wonderful, loving partner, and eleven beautiful children, and that meant more to them than any present they could have found under the tree. Because that was what made Christmas worthwhile.

**THE END**


End file.
